Nokia’s got a premium lineup of devices, and I’m not talking Nseries here, but instead Vertu. With devices that range in price from 2,500 EUR all the way up to 100,000+ EUR, they’ve historically been nothing more than feature phones, but instead of being built by an Indian or Chinese employee earning minimum wage, they were constructed in the UK, by hand, with parts made in Switzerland. Precision doesn’t even begin to describe these things. Not only that, but Vertu handsets come with a lifetime warranty and concierge service. With that background, let me introduce the Vertu Constellation Quest, the first Vertu with a QWERTY keyboard.
It’s hard to say which guts are inside the Quest, but if I had to make a bet I’d say it was the E72 or E71, the latter being one of the finest devices to ever come out of Finland. The Quest doesn’t have a price tag yet, or a spec sheet, but the image above shows that it means business. It’s angular, like a Transformer, and the keys look like they’re made out of black glass. If high quality luxury items are your thing, then you’re going to want this handset.
While we’re on the topic of expensive phones, what’s your upper limit purchase price? I’ve always argued that if Nokia came out with a smartphone that was premium everything, from software, to materials, and charged roughly 1200 EUR for it, people would still buy it in droves. The iPhone set the bar for how expensive a mobile phone can be, but why hasn’t anyone tried to raise it with something of equal or superior quality? You’re telling me HTC can’t source stainless steel and black glass and make an Android device fit for a king?
Come on mobile industry, show us what you’ve got.
[Via: Engadget]