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Vertu Rises from the Ashes with Lavish New Handsets
Less than a year after shutting down its UK manufacturing business, luxury mobile phone makers Vertu appear to be back with a vengeance after launching a pair of lavish new handsets for the Chinese market.
Called the Aster P Baroque and Aster P Gothic, both handsets continue the brand’s tradition of featuring luxurious materials, housing titanium alloy frame, sapphire glass screen and back panels from real leather.
The new handsets have also retained the traditional “ruby” button on the side that connects to a 24/7 concierge service and that works all over the world.
The design includes a pair of gull-wing-style doors on the back, which acts as a cover for the SIM card slot. The door features the “Made in England” marking, along with the signature of the craftsman.
As for internal specs, the Aster P comes with a midrange Snapdragon 660 processor, a 3,200mAh battery, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. The pairs come with a 12MP camera on the rear, a 20MP selfie camera, and a 4.97-inch 1080p screen.
In total there are seven different versions of the Aster P. The Baroque series arrives in Black, Gentleman Blue, Caramel Brown, and Twilight Orange, with a starting price of about $4,200; the Gothic series is available in Black Jade and White Moon priced at about $5,100, and the Vertu Aster P Dazzling Gold is priced at approximately $14,000.
Founded in 1998, Vertu was solely owned by the Finnish mobile-phone manufacturer Nokia until 2012 June when Nokia sold 90 per cent of the company's equity share to private group EQT VI.