In today’s economy it may seem a bit perverse to be talking about Vertu, Nokia’s premium brand that sells devices that can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000+, but a leak just happened and it’s our duty to cover it. The Constellation T, which hasn’t been formally announced, has shown up on the Bluetooth SIG’s website. They say it’ll pack a 3.5 inch AMOLED screen, 8 megapixel EDoF camera, pentaband 3G, quadband 3G, and come with 32 GB of onboard memory. What they don’t say is what type of exotic materials this thing will be made of, how ridiculously heavy it’s going to be because it’s made of incredibly expensive metals, and all the other stuff that rich oil barrons care about whenever they whip out their mobile phone in public and show everyone around them that they shit money every morning. Judging by the spec sheet though, it’s safe to say that this handset is nothing more than a Nokia N8, but with the camera from the E7, which again, isn’t important since Vertu devices are never about spec sheets, but build quality and bling factor.
Since Nokia started offering Vertue devices back in 1998, the company has sold more than 300,000 of them. Since 2009 the number of Vertu employees has shot up over 50% to 840, which makes Nokia’s recent announcement that they’re cutting 3,500 jobs all the more painful to swallow. Will you ever buy a Vertu handset? Doubtful. You’re better off just buying an iPhone every year for the next 10 years at a cost of $700 per year. Not only will you end up with a better device experience, but you’ll actually spend less money.
That being said, there’s something about owning a Vertu that has some incredible appeal. You’ll have an ultra exclusive device, something that you can rub in people’s faces, and since these things are built by hand they’ll likely last you a lifetime.