Vertu Ti Android smartphone goes on sale for $10,500
updated 07:14 am EST, Tue February 12, 2013
Includes sapphire glass front, titanium shell, concierge button
Vertu, the luxury handset maker formerly owned by Nokia, has released it's first Android-powered handset. The Vertu Ti, leaked at the start of the month, will cost potential customers 7,900 euros ($10,500), despite the company's head of design claiming that "Vertu will never be at the bleeding edge of technology."
Hutch Hutchinson, the head designer at the British firm, told the BBC that the Vertu Ti "has to be about relevant technology and craftsmanship – it's not a disposable product." The materials used to construct the Vertu Ti reflect this, with a titanium shell providing a higher level of protection than more mainstream handsets, while the name and signature of the employee that assembled the device are inscribed onto the lid of the SIM holder by a laser.
The specifications list for the Vertu Ti are considerably modest despite it's cost. Using a 1.7GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor with 1GB of RAM, it has a 1,250mAh battery, 64GB of storage, a rear 8-megapixel camera with 1.3MP front-facing counterpart, no LTE support, and a sapphire glass screen with a low 800x480 resolution touchscreen display. Despite the average internals, the Vertu Ti does offer customers access to a concierge service using a dedicated concierge button.
The Vertu Ti is on sale at 500 retail outlets globally, including 70 company-owned stores.
