The Vertu Ti: A $10,000 Phone With A Titanium Body & Sapphire Crystal Display

By Killian Bell

Got bags of cash you need to spend fast? Want a smartphone with a 16-month-old operating system? Then look no further than the Vertu Ti, a luxury Android-powered smartphone handmade in good old England that starts from $10,000. Some of its features include a sapphire crystal display, titanium casing, and Bang & Olufsen sound.

The Vertu Ti, which was leaked late last month, is available in four different models. The titanium black leather version is the base model, and it costs $10,000, while the titanium pure black costs around $12,300. There’s also a titanium black alligator model, which features real alligator skin, and a black with “red gold mixed metals” model — but these two haven’t yet been priced.

Inside the device, you’ll find a 3.7-inch WVGA display, a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 64GB of internal storage, and NFC connectivity. It also offers an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with autofocus and an LED flash, and a 1.3-megapixel “Skype compliant” front-facing camera.

Each device is built by hand, and the name of its assembler is etched into the lid of the SIM card tray.

The Vertu Ti also comes with a number of Vertu services that you won’t get with other Android-powered smartphones. Each device has a dedicated Vertu Key on its side, and with one press, the owner is connected to a concierge service that’s available worldwide 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Even with the concierge service and the luxury materials, the Vertu Ti seems like a very expensive smartphone — especially when you take its pretty disappointing specifications into account. I mean, if I’m spending $10,000 on a smartphone, I’d expect a 1080p display and a quad-core processor, at least.

But Vertu CEO Perry Oosting explained to BBC News that the Vertu Ti isn’t about competing with high-end smartphones. “Vertu will never be at the bleeding edge of technology,” he said. “It has to be about relevant technology and craftsmanship – it’s not a disposable product.”