Luxury smartphone brand returns with $41,500 device
- Reference: 1666701006
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/10/25/metavertu_luxury_phone/
- Source link:
The device, which supposedly integrates smart terminals, crypto-mining nodes, separate OSs for NFTs and blockchain, high-end service, and whatever other buzzwords you can think of into one phone, comes with prices ranging from a no-frills $3,300 version to a Himalayan Alligator Leather version encrusted with 18k gold and diamonds at $41,500.
[1]
Metavertu Himalaya Alligator Leather 18K Gold & Diamonds
For the record, an iPhone 14 Pro and a Galaxy S22+ both cost about $1,000 each.
"We define METAVERTU as a phone, a power bank, a 10T hard disk, a dual system machine, a light node, a NFT pass holder, a privacy guardian," [2]said the company.
The Vertu brand began as a thought exercise on what if a phone was a luxury status symbol in the same way as a bag, sunglasses or car. That only took the brand so far as it bounced around from parent company to parent company, eventually making its way into voluntary liquidation under the guidance of Cyprus-based Turkish company Baferton Ltd. The company now appears to be revived under Chengdu VERTU Business Management Co. Ltd.
[3]
The new METAVERTU branding considers the nature of the original Vertu product and takes it one step further – to simulate an environment where the user feels they are privy to an unrecognizable yet high-fashion world just around the corner.
[4]
[5]
As stated in the company's [6]press release :
From the official teaser video that alludes to the famous ad 1984, a young man finally breaks the fruit phone's supremacy. VERTU is implying that a new order has formed as a digital revolution based on WEB 3.0 is about to break out.
The Reg can only assume they are referring to Apple's iPhone and this video:
[7]Youtube Video
The appeal of the phone, beyond conspicuous opulence, might be for those who want to trade and mine crypto, particularly Ethereum, while turning snapshots of houseplants or party selfies into NFT "art."
[8]
With one-click you can switch between Web2.0 and Web3.0 capabilities, said Vertu.
The company released tutorials for how to go about both [9]creating crypto wallets and [10]turning photos into NFTs , but be forewarned, the marketing budget seemed to have been used up by that "teasing video."
[11]Xiaomi's Mi-too attempt at a pholdable: Not one, but TWO creases of fail
[12]Funnily enough, charging ££££s for trashy bling-phones wasn't a great idea
[13]Global smartphone sales come tumbling down as reality bites
[14]Lenovo reveals rollable laptop and smartphone screens
As for the stuff inside, it runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8Gen1 4nm 5G chip, and an A5 "privacy chip."
There's a version with 18GB RAM + 1TB ROM + 10T IPFS storage so no one needs to prematurely delete the videos they took on their weekend private jet trip to the Maldives.
The phone has a 64MP sensor with optical image stabilization, a secondary ultrawide camera that operates at 50MP, and a third 8MP periscope. Of course there's a selfie cam too, 16MP.
[15]
The 6.67-inch AMOLED waterfall 72.5° curved screen has 2400 x 1080 resolution and refreshes at 144Hz. The whole thing is 161.9 x 73.2 x 9.85mm. Comparatively, the iPhone 14 is 146.7 x 71.5 x 7.8mm.
The 4600mAh battery takes only 20 minutes to charge up to 90 percent over 55W wired charging and there is 15W wireless charging for top-ups.
When it comes to infosec, the company promises point-to-point encrypted communication using VTalk so one can "leave your secrets here."
Users also get VPASS, a service for crypto-related notifications, or as Vertu [16]puts it , a "multi-chain real-time data analysis and automated execution tool service for web3 users, enabling them to identify new opportunities in the market, take action, make informed trading decisions and achieve freedom one step ahead."
There's also "comprehensive asset protection" for crypto wallets, but exactly how this works remains a mystery. We have asked the company for details on its security and a potted history of the business. ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/10/25/metavertu.jpg
[2] https://twitter.com/republicofvertu/status/1584463808441221121
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y1gIF3AtmJakImTAokP@@AAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y1gIF3AtmJakImTAokP@@AAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y1gIF3AtmJakImTAokP@@AAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2022/10/11/2531865/0/en/VERTU-debuts-the-World-s-first-WEB3-phone-flagship-METAVERTU-to-make-a-new-decentralized-revolution.html
[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILUb9mu2C88https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILUb9mu2C88
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y1gIF3AtmJakImTAokP@@AAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://twitter.com/republicofvertu/status/1584499956609478662
[10] https://twitter.com/republicofvertu/status/1584507496324030464
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2019/03/28/xiaomis_pholdable_not_one_but_two_creases_of_fail/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2017/07/14/vertu_phoneflinger_shuts_down/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/19/smartphone_shipments_q3_2022_canalys/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/19/lenovo_rollable_laptop_smartphone_concept/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y1gIF3AtmJakImTAokP@@AAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://republicofvertu.com/vpass/whitePaper/en/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Please save us...
A new achievement: more money and buzzwords than sense.
"VERTU ENGLAND"?
Yet all the characters in the video are Asian?
Anyway, they're guaranteed to win the buzzword bingo this week!
Re: "VERTU ENGLAND"?
The actual company who now own the rights to the Vertu name, designs and Branding etc. are Vertu France. They got them from Vertu UK in a [1]corporate restructuring and have a [2]website that says everything else is a fake. The Turkish businessman behind Vertu when it went belly up has an ‘interesting’ past [3] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/03/12/turkish-exile-snaps-smartphone-maker-vertu-50m/" It has been suggested that this intellectual property should not have been transferred and instead have been included in the bankruptcy sale. Was this just an attempt to keep the company going in another country or was it something else?
I’ve played with a few Vertu Phones when they were still going in England, and the only thing about them that really stood out was the build quality especially the sapphire screen. I was given a phone, they said my keys wouldn’t damage the screen and I did give it a really good go but I couldn’t scratch it even with a determined effort. I now have access to the same concierge as they used and it’s not bad. Don’t think that comes with the new phones though.
Actually the clock widgets were very nice and integrated with the calendar.
[1] https://www.telecompaper.com/news/vertu-extends-production-deal-with-tcl-communication--1200930
[2] https://www.vertu.boutique/
[3] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/03/12/turkish-exile-snaps-smartphone-maker-vertu-50m/
The ideal phone for those who care more about what others think of them.
"Himalayan Alligator Leather" HUH? Everyone knows Himalayan Alligators have fur like the Yeti.
Love,
Austin Tacious
From the website of an unrelated Hermes handbag:
"The Himalaya Kelly is crafted from Nile crocodile hide. The designation ‘Himalaya’ does not apply to the origin of the bag, but rather to the delicate gradation of the colour. The smoky grey fades into a pearly white, resembling the majestic, snow-capped Himalayas."
I think I need to go lie down as my BS detector just exploded...
Himalayan Alligator Leather, yep that was our big problem during our last trip to the Himalayas, the damn alligators were just awful, biting from dusk to dawn, worse than the mosquitos!
Before you laugh too loud...
[1]These ones live in China. Habitat destruction is driving them up into mountains where it is too cold for their eggs to develop. They would have to swim a long way to get to the Himalayas. Probably better to commute by plane and keep a home near a viable breeding ground.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_alligator
re: Himalayan Alligator
I too have visited the Himalaya, three times, and clearly am not at all as attractive to the native alligators as I thought I might be. I can only assume that it was the Giardia infection (odour of Hydrogen Sulphide / rotten eggs) that kept them away. (Of course I did carry an 'alligator bite kit', just in case, a bit like a snake bite kit, but so much bigger.)
Incidentally, I thought alligators (short, broad snout) were north American natives, but, hey what do I know?
RE: Himalayan Alligator
The phone can be attached to a belt by means of a crocodile clip
On second thought, I'll take two of the top of the line models. They'll look stunning on my Corinthian Leather seats!
Mining crypto on a phone?
Now I'm not up to speed on the latest developments in the crypto industry, but has it crashed so hard that all the miners have sold their Icelandic GPU farms leading to a phone being able to do...anything, really when mining?
lol
Fools, money, parted.
PT Barnum still hasn't been disproven.
If ya got that much money, chances are, you've taken advantage of the Barnum affect yourself, and have other fool's money to burn. Not to feed yourself, or put a roof over the family's head... just to piss away.
Meanwhile at Apple...
[stunned silence]
Re: Meanwhile at Apple...
Now, these are people who *really* understand Veblen Goods.
Re: Meanwhile at Apple...
Well you know Apple's motto: "Never leave money on the table"
It wouldn't suprise me in the least if they came up with their own take on NFT to squeeze more money out of their fanboys' pockets.
1 TB ROM? Did they mean Flash Memory? (Derived from EEPROM).
++ Bring back us Dabbsy! ++
No, no ROM is correct.
When you pay, they create the lithography masks to fab your own personalised ROM, which is big enough to hold the Forbes 500 Company 'phone directories - and a complete copy of the blockchain(s) that contain the NFT that is the only proof-of-ownership you get for the this 'phone.
The really interesting thing about this phone is that it's not Android. It's their own, linux based OS, with encryption through a custom chip. This is probably as ambitious as the claim to be the new Appple.
From the official teaser video that alludes to the famous ad 1984, a young man finally breaks the fruit phone's supremacy. VERTU is implying that a new order has formed as a digital revolution based on WEB 3.0 is about to break out.
Written by people who should suffer the same fate as the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetic Corporation
Stopped reading
I stopped reading when I read the word NFT.
Porsche designed BB10 phones
Anyone remember when Blackberry had Porsche designed phones?
Loads-a-money
"Shut yor maaaaaff and look at my new shiny-shiny fing!" Yet more bling for those with more money than sense.
Please save us...
From shit like this, and particularly the people that need to buy them to validate their existence.