Luxury phonemaker Vertu has unveiled a new trio of handsets, and, with prices starting $4,200, they might be the company's cheapest yet. The smartphones are all additions to Vertu's Aster collection, which means buyers can enjoy two-year-old specs such as a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor (found in Samsung's Galaxy S5) and Android 5.1 Lollipop. The only new features are the phones' exteriors, which are clad in a chevron-patterned "highly resilient Italian fabric," and available in blue, pink, and black.

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As noted above, these are cheap handsets by Vertu's standards. Other options in the Aster collection include tangerine sea snake skin ($7,400), raspberry pink ostrich leather ($7,900), and 'diamond black' alligator leather ($10,100). And this is only Vertu's entry range, with its most expensive handsets — which are all feature phones running Nokia's Series 40 software — selling for in excess of $30,000. Now that's the sort of money you want to be dropping on a luxury mobile phone. After all, if the technical specs are outdated, and the only point in purchasing one is to signal how goddamn, stinking rich you are, why settle for less than $20k?