Vertu, the luxury phone maker, has launched its first Luxury handset of 2013, called the Vertu Ti, after being acquired by European investment firm EQT. Vertu had been an integral part of Nokia for several years till the Finnish company decided to sell Vertu’s majority shares, last year. Not surprisingly, the first Vertu Phone, post the acquisition from Nokia, is an Android phone.
Vertu Ti runs on Android 4.0. Ti here stands for Titanium. The phone is encased in a Titanium body. The Vertu Ti is available in Indian stores starting at Rupees 6,49,995/-
I went gloves on with the Vertu Ti – Black Leather and Black Alligator versions, priced at 6,49,995 and 8,74,995, respectively.
FIRST HANDS ON (without gloves) WITH VERTU TI.
Most Luxury phones justify their big price tag, by the precious stones and metal, used in the body. Vertu Ti too uses precious metal, but the big price tag here, is for the craftsmanship in making this handset. Shear beauty, perfection in details and aesthetics that will woo at first glance.
Lets begin with unboxing. The Vertu Ti comes in a big Black box with three drawers – of nearly a dozen accessories, beneath the phone tray. Never imagined, unboxing a phone, could be so much fun ! Right on top is the crown – A Black Leather Vertu Ti placed gracefully in a velvet covered tray.
The tray below has a leather case for the phone, a battery charger pack, a car charger, and micro and nano sim adaptors.
The battery pack can charge the battery once to its full limit.
The pack seems a bit big for a single charge.
The leather case for the phone has a beautiful hemline with the Vertu branding at the center.
Car charger too flaunts the Vertu logo.
Adapters for nano and micro SIM
The second tray has a couple of mini USB cables.
A pair of headsets. All accessories are made to compliment the handset design.
There are a total of four plugs, including 2 &3 pin chargers for different sockets.
Vertu Warranty and Quick start guide. Must read to well understand and utilise the concierge service by Vertu.
A screen cleaner, to wipe prints off the tough, 3.7 inch, Sapphire crystal touch screen.
An ‘Exotic Certificate’, for the Alligator skin used in the Alligator version.
And if the warranty is not enough, there is also the ‘Vertu Authenticity card’
Unboxing done. Here are the Black Aligator and Black Leather (that looks more Grey) Vertu Ti. Each phone is hand crafted by a single craftsman in Vertu’s well equipped workshop, located in Hampshire in England.
Take a closer look at the Alligator version. The perfection in the craftsmanship is evident, in the precision of placement of the Titanium casing around the alligator skin back.
The Black Leather Verti Ti looks a little sombre compared to the Alligator skin version, but the richness of the handset design is retained in Black leather version.
The screen is 3.7 inches diagonally. Made entirely of Sapphire crystal glass that remains scratch proof at most times and it is tested to be four times stronger than screens of other smartphones in terms of impact resistance. The phone’s overall construction aims at keeping the phone safe from damage. VERTU claims that TI’s Titanium case is around five times stronger than other smart phones.
This red Ruby button stands out, on the left spine, for it is the access point for Vertu’s exclusive bouquet of services, including concierge service . This key is a new feature in Vertu phones. An extended explanation on this feature, is ahead in the post.
Below the red button is the micro USB slot.
Each Vertu Ti phone is handcrafted, by a single craftsman, thus the detailing is – spot on. Audio speakers – 11 x 15 mm rectangular
drivers are acoustically integrated into the chassis to maximize audio frequency.
Volume buttons and the 3.5 mm audio jack are placed on the right spine.
Top side is the power and screen lock button. While using the phone for the short duration that I could, reaching & accessing the power button, sometimes, took a little effort because of the framing around the button area.
Look at the framing, the Titanium casing is placed with dotted screws, around the phone. They do suit the overall aesthetics of the handmade phone.
On the face of the phone, the three access buttons at the bottom – Home, Back and Multi-tasking, are also made of the same metal and fixed on the phone with screwed framing.
According to tests done on the Ti, by Vertu . The 3.7 inch screen Sapphire crystal screen withstood a single drop of a 110gm ball bearing. The phone does have a front facing 1.3 Mp camera for video chatting.
Backside has a beautifully framed 8 MP camera with flash. The camera is capable of producing 1080p Video Capture.
The Battery is sealed behind the cover. However a sim slot has been provided just below the camera. The mechanical method used to unlock the sim slot is simple, yet quite stylish. This hook between the flash and camera is the first step to remove SIM cover.
Once the hook is pulled out, the sim cover pops out. Sim tray is found right below it. Vertu inbox accessories include micro and nano sim adaptors.
Lets now familiarize you with Vertu’s exclusive bouquet of customer services. This red Ruby key is the starting point to access the LIFE, CONCIERGE and CERTAINTY services.
Vertu Certainty, protects the device, its data and, where necessary, the customer. Vertu Life – tailored information, articles and benefits – sits alongside Vertu’s famous Concierge service. These benefits and services are made available to Vertu users via a global team of customer care experts.
Vertu Ti currently runs on Android 4.0.4 in a luxury phone. The Android Jelly Bean version will be available in Vertu Ti phones from July. Its good to see a luxury phone add some of the current smart phone features. Vertu Ti is powered by Snapdragon S4, 1.7 Ghz dual core processor.
Vertu Ti also offers plenty of phone memory which is why there is no space for a memory card. The Phone has 64Gb inbuilt memory! Now that’s a first for a luxury phone.
IMG_0414: Vertu Ti also offers secure NFC features.
These are the variants of Vertu Ti available in India.
- Titanium Black Leather – Rs.6,49,995/-
- Titanium Black Alligator – Rs. 8,74,995/-
- Black PVD Titanium Red Gold Mixed Metals – Rs. 13,99,995/-
Another variant Titanium Pure Black will also be launched soon.
Vertu Ti impresses not just with its creative and expensive outer shell but also the technology it offers, inside. With a Snapdragon dual core processor, massive memory space and the latest Operating system, Vertu has proved that Luxury phones are no more, just about precious hardware and are capable of incorporating current technology. Vertu Ti is probably, the only luxury phone, in the Indian market that can impress a power user who wont blink twice at the price tag.
Take a look at a few screenshots of the special services provided by Vertu to its customers.
