The new Finest Woods Bellperre phones weigh 120 grams and measure 100 x 44 x 15,3 mm each, and can be customized with hand-polished Steel, Yellow Gold, Rosé Gold or Platinum. 110 types of genuine exotic leathers can be added (shark, lizard, alligator or buffalo). Moreover, Bellperre can add “diamonds and gemstones or initials, logos or personal messages on request.”

Feature-wise, the Bellperre phones offer tri-band GSM connectivity 900/1800/1900, a 2 inch Sapphire Crystal scratch-resistant display, stereo Bluetooth, email and a version of Windows Mobile.

Bellperre says that its phones are handmade in Holland. No word on the price of the new luxury handsets, but interested customers should try and contact the manufacturer via its official website.

• Mobiado Unveils Professional 105GMT White Luxury Watchphone
• Mobiado Professional 105GCB Rose announced
• Mobiado intros Professional 105 EM Special Edition and 105 EM CLB luxury phones
• Tag Heuer Meridiist earns FCC seal of approval
• Mobiado Professional 105GMT Gold: a mechanical watch mobile phone

Like the other 105GMT models, these new phones from Mobiado incorporate Swiss gold-plated dual mechanical watches that feature 25 jeweled bearings.

The 105GMT Stealth is made from aluminum, sapphire crystal and stainless steel, while the 105GMT Antique adds rose gold and Cocobolo hardwood to all that.

The phones’ specs include: quad-band GSM and dual-band WCDMA connectivity (850/2100 MHz), 2 inch QVGA display with 16 million colors, Bluetooth, Music player, 2MP camera and 1GB of internal memory.

No word yet on the price of Mobiado Professional 105GMT Stealth and 105GMT Antique, but it’s surely a high one.

Via Mobiado

• Mobiado Professional 105GCB Rose announced
• Mobiado introduces Professional 105 EM in Cocobolo, Ebony and 24-K Gold
• Mobiado intros Professional 105 EM Special Edition and 105 EM CLB luxury phones
• Mobiado Professional 105GMT Gold: a mechanical watch mobile phone
• 8 new Samsung phones leaked – S5050, C5212, S3310 and E2210 included

As the name suggests, the new handset is made in collaboration with Lamborghini and it’s actually a special edition of the MERIDIIST phone announced last year.

The new handset is “housed in black titanium carbide coated 316L stainless steel” and features a Lamborghini signature on the battery cover, similar to the one on the Lamborghini Murcielago LP 640’s V12 engine block.

Built by ModeLabs, the TAG Heuer MERIDIIST Automobili Lamborghini also features a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal display, 2MP camera, 2GB of internal memory and a battery that can last up to7 hours in talk time mode, or up to 28 days in standby.

Only 1963 units of the MERIDIIST Lamborghini phone will be made – as tribute to the year Lamborghini was founded. Customers will be able to buy the handset from select TAG Heuer and Lamborghini retail locations. You can check out the phone on TAG Heuer’s official website.

Via Pursuitist, Engadget

• Tag Heuer Meridiist earns FCC seal of approval
• Luxury Mobile Phone Named: Tag Heuer Meridiist
• Pics, specs of new Tag Heuer Meridiist
• Vertu and Ferrari Together Again for Ascent Ti Collection
• Cheap Nokia 1280, 1616, 1800, 2220 slide and 2690 announced

In case you don’t know yet, the Ayxta comes with features never seen in a Vertu phone before: it has two displays (QVGA internal and 128 x 160 pixels external), GPS and HSDPA connectivity.

Other features include a 3MP camera, MicroSD card support and a case made from stainless steel, leather and gold (in some versions).

Appeared over at Mobile-review, the phone’s video preview is in Russian, but the UI’s language is set on English, so you’ll have no problems in understanding what’s happening there:

The Vertu Ayxta costs between €4,900 and €6,500 and it should be available now.

• Vertu Constellation F Ayxta luxury clamshell announced
• Vertu Constellation F to be the first Vertu clamshell phone
• Vertu Boucheron 150 – beautiful or just crippled?
• Vertu Ascent Ti Damascus Steel is tough like a sword
• Vertu Constellation Pure phones have ceramic keypads

Two of the upcoming phones should be gold plated, black PVD coated and encrusted with sapphire crystals; they’ll cost $6,500 each.

Other two phones – a red one called Zelie and a white one called Zenaide – will be encrusted with diamonds. They should be priced at $7,900 and $13,400 respectively.

Finally, there will also be a Christian Dior Naicre phone, coming with a mother-of-pearl casing and costing $8,700.

The new Christian Dior phones should be available for purchase in December this year.

Via JustLuxe

• Cristian Dior phone is coming. For $3500-5000 and more a pop
• Christian Dior’s Dior Mini walks the FCC runway
• Gresso’s White Diamond Collection for the affluent
• Rumor: Christian Dior mobile phone coming May 16th
• $2.41 million iPhone 3G Kings Button is the epitome of luxury

The company says that the Grand 350 Pioneer pays homage to NASA – more exactly, to its Pioneer 10 spacecraft. Launched 37 years ago, Pioneer 10 is the first spacecraft to travel through the Solar System’s asteroid belt and is currently heading in the direction of Aldebaran (aka Alpha Tauri), the brightest star in the constellation Taurus.

There will be only 37 Mobiado Grand 350 Pioneer phones, each having its limited edition number engraved on the right side, and the Pioneer 10’s date of launch (March 3, 1972) engraved on the left side.

What’s unique about the Mobiado Grand 350 Pioneer is that its battery cover is literally made out of materials from the Gibeon meteorite, discovered in Namibia in 1836. The meteorite is believed to come from asteroid belts near Mars and Jupiter; its composition is 90% iron and 8%nickel, plus small traces of phosphorus and cobalt.

The battery cover also features a variation of the Pioneer plaques (which were placed on board of Pioneer 10 in order to provide info about the human race in case the spacecraft is intercepted by extraterrestrial beings).

As for the technical features of Mobiado Grand 350 Pioneer, these include: quad-band GSM connectivity, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS, QVGA display with 16 million colors, 3.2MP camera and a 2.5mm headset jack.

Mobiado didn’t say how much the Grand 350 Pioneer costs.

Via email press release

• Mobiado Grand Line collection debuts with the QWERTY-equipped Grand 350PRL
• Mobiado Professional 105GCB Rose announced
• Mobiado intros Professional 105 EM Special Edition and 105 EM CLB luxury phones
• Mobiado Professional 105GMT Gold: a mechanical watch mobile phone
• Mobiado unveils Professional 105 ZAF, world’s thinnest luxury phone

The B7620 is actually not just a phone, since it runs on Windows Mobile 6.5 – so it’s obviously a smartphone. The new Giorgio Armani handset from Samsung also features a full QWERTY keyboard, so it should be a good choice for those who want a fashionable device but also a completely-equipped smartphone.

Other features include: 3.5 inch WVGA AMOLED display, 5MP autofocus camera with, GPS and 8GB of internal memory.

The folks over at HDblog.it had the chance to play a bit with the Samsung Armani B7620 and recorded it all on video:

Samsung Armani B7620 costs slightly over $1,000 and it will probably be available before the year’s end in Europe.

• Samsung Armani B7620 goes to Germany in November, costs €729
• Samsung Giorgio Armani Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone unveiled
• Samsung Giorgio Armani W820 / W8200 shows up in Korea
• Samsung AMOLED 12M W880 – officially the world’s first 12MP camera phone with 3x optical zoom
• Samsung Giorgio Armani W820/W8200 in press photos

Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer himself presented the new device, saying that it’s “the most fashionable phone he’s ever had a chance to talk about.”

Resembling the Samsung Armani W820/W8200 feature phone, the WM 6.5 Samsung Armani doesn’t seem to have a name yet. Anyway, apart from Windows Mobile 6.5, it features a 3.5 inch AMOLED touchscreen display, GPS, 5MP camera, 8GB of internal memory, MicroSD card slot, and a full QWERTY keyboard.

The Samsung Armani Windows phone will cost €700 ($1032), although its release date is not known at the moment. Until the handset hits the market, here’s a video promo of it:

Via Blogosfere.it and Engadget

• Samsung Armani is SGH-P520 touchsreen card phone
• Samsung Armani B7620 goes to Germany in November, costs €729
• Samsung Armani Windows phone (B7620) video hands-on
• Samsung D980/D988 – DuoS with touchscreen
• Samsung Giorgio Armani W820/W8200 in press photos

The Sky DuPont is a full-touch candybar with golden accents, designed to remind users of the DuPont lighters’ look. The phone, which measures 106.8 x 50.8 x 11.15 mm and weighs 90 grams, actually opens up like a DuPont lighter to unveil a 3MP photo camera.

Other features include a 3 inch touchscreen display with 240 x 400 pixels, GPS, DMB TV, Music player, email and MicroSD card support.

The price of Pantech DuPont is of around $830 – it’s the most expensive Pantech phone made until now.

Via iSky (in Korean)

• Pantech announces Sky DuPont IM-U510LE luxury phone
• Pantech IM-S380K announced – elegant Korean slider
• Pantech doublEye IM-U490S slider launched
• Pantech Love Actually IM-U460K touchscreen phone announced
• Pantech Reveal now available at AT&T, $80 on contract

Since it’s form the Armani series, the Samsung W820/W8200 is a luxury phone. It has an alphanumeric keypad and a back cover that appears to be gold-plated.

The known features of the new Samsung Armani handset include: 3.1 inch WVGA touchscreen display, HSDPA connectivity, DMB TV, Bluetooth, 5MP camera, and MicroSD card support (up to 16GB).

No word yet if the Samsung Giorgio Armani W820/W8200 will be launched only in Korea, or if it will be available globally.

Via Samsung Hub

• Samsung Giorgio Armani W820 / W8200 shows up in Korea
• Samsung Armani B7620 goes to Germany in November, costs €729
• Samsung Armani SGH-P520 Launched Officially
• Samsung SCH-B900 touchscreen phone introduced in Korea
• Samsung Armani Windows phone (B7620) video hands-on

Like all phones made by Vertu, the Ayxta is made from expensive materials like stainless steel, ceramic, leather, sapphire crystal (for the display) and aerospace grade aluminum parts.

The new phone comes with GPS, 3G (HSDPA, apparently), MicroSD card support, 3MP camera with dual LED flash, and City Brief – a feature that provides “restaurant recommendations, the latest exhibitions, shopping guides and important cultural etiquette tips.” There are also some exclusive ringtones recorded by UK-based band Zero 7.

The Vertu Constellation F Ayxta should be on sale as of now, and you can see it on Vertu’s website.

Via Sybarites

• Vertu Constellation Ayxta video preview
• Vertu Constellation F to be the first Vertu clamshell phone
• Vertu Constellation Pure phones have ceramic keypads
• Vertu Ascent Ti Carbon Fibre collection announced
• Vertu Constellation Rococo Collection Phones: The Real Luxury Phones

However, the British luxury phone maker is getting ready to launch a clamshell too, called Vertu Constellation F and made from premium materials (including stainless steel, leather and – in some versions – gold).

Apart from having an unusual design, the Vertu Constellation F also has some features never seen before in a Vertu phone, like GPS and HSDPA/HSPA.

The handset also comes with: a 2.4 inch internal display with 320 x 480 pixels and 16 million colors, 1.36 inch external display with 128 x 160 pixels, 3MP camera with dual LED flash, 8GB of internal memory and quad-band GSM connectivity.

Vertu Constellation F should be available starting this autumn. The phone’s price is not known, but it will certainly be a high one.

Via Mobil.cz

• Vertu Constellation Ayxta video preview
• Vertu Constellation Pure phones have ceramic keypads
• Nokia Erdos 8800 luxury phone appears in video
• Verizon’s LG VX8360 shows its face and features
• Vertu Constellation F Ayxta luxury clamshell announced

The manufacturer is Pantech, South Korea’s third largest handset maker, and the new phone is Pantech Sky DuPont IM-U510LE.

The DuPont phone was announced today in Korea. Pantech says that its design is inspired by DuPont’s famous lighters.

The handset has gold-plated edges and it features a 3 inch touchscreen display, 2G-only connectivity, GPS and a 3MP camera. Other specs are not known at the moment.

Several video previews of the new DuPont luxury phone are available:

Pantech Sky DuPont IM-U510LE’s price will be of around $832, making it Pantech’s most expensive phone ever.

Via Telecoms Korea

• Pantech Sky DuPont luxury phone now available
• Pantech IM-R470S with unconverted video playback launched
• Pantech IM-S380K announced – elegant Korean slider
• Samsung Giorgio Armani W820/W8200 in press photos
• Pantech Love Actually IM-U460K touchscreen phone announced

Codenamed Nokia Erdos, the phone is, according to CellPassion, an “engineering masterpiece”.

Running on Symbian S60, the handset is made from a single piece of stainless steel.

Apparently, a piece of glass covers its display, hiding it when the phone is in stand-by, and becoming transparent when the screen is on. The phone also has a “rising keypad”, which matches the display’s level when you slide it.

The mains specs of Nokia Erdos include:

• 2.4 inch OLED display with 320 x 240 pixels and 16 million colors
• Tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900 MHz) and dual-band WCDMA connectivity
• Wi-Fi
• A-GPS
• Stereo Bluetooth
• 5MP Carl Zeiss camera with autofocus, dual LED flash and video recording
• 8GB of internal memory
• 116.9 x 50.3 x 15 mm

No word yet on its price, but we know that the Nokia Erdos 8800 should be launched in October this year. Until then, you can take a better look at the phone in this video:

• 8 new Samsung phones leaked – S5050, C5212, S3310 and E2210 included
• Nokia 6650 hits AT&T tomorrow, $69.99 on contract
• Nokia 8800 Gold Arte surfaces, dressed in leather and (of course) gold
• Nokia 5800 XpressMusic launched by Rogers in Canada
• Nokia Wahoo for AT&T leaked: a flip phone with a semi-QWERTY keyboard

Inspired by F1 racing, the Gresso Grand Monaco phones are made from materials borrowed from the world of racing: “titanium superalloy”, high-tech ceramic and carbon. Other materials include steel and hand-polished 42 K sapphire crystal (framing the display).

The phones have flat keypads and feature stuff like: GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity, 2MP camera, Bluetooth, email and “an outstanding menu design”.

The Gresso Grand Monaco collection includes two models: “Metallic Ceramic Black Carbon” and “Metallic Ceramic Black Carbon”. They cost $2,100 each and can be ordered via Gresso’s official website.

• Gresso Lady Gold and Ultramarine Gold phones launched
• Vertu Ascent Ti Carbon Fibre collection announced
• Mobiado Grand Line collection debuts with the QWERTY-equipped Grand 350PRL
• $5,500 Gresso Lady Diamond phone announced
• Vertu Constellation Pure phones have ceramic keypads

The Ascent Ti Carbon Fibre phones are handcrafted in England and include “the optimum amount of carbon fibers and resin”, combined in order to “achieve a flawless uniform look on both the flat and curved parts.”

Feature-wise, Vertu Ascent Ti Carbon Fibre apparently offers a 2 inch QVGA display, 3G, 4GB of internal memory and a 3.15MP camera with LED flash (typical for an Ascent Ti phone)

The new Vertu collection includes the following models: Ascent Ti Carbon Fibre Limited Edition, Carbon Fibre Grip, Carbon Fibre & Copper Grip, and Carbon Fibre & Aluminium Grip.

The prices of Vertu’s Carbon Fibre Ascent Ti phones are “available upon request.”

Via Vertu (PDF link)

• Vertu Ascent Ti Damascus Steel is tough like a sword
• Vertu and Ferrari Together Again for Ascent Ti Collection
• Vertu Constellation F to be the first Vertu clamshell phone
• Vertu Constellation F Ayxta luxury clamshell announced
• Vertu Constellation Pure phones have ceramic keypads

The 65 Vertu luxury phones, stolen during an armed robbery in 2005, have been recovered, and Sandhu was sent to jail for 22 months.

The UK’s National Mobile Phone Crime Unit (NMPCU) further investigated Sandhu’s case and, after finding the stolen Vertus at the house of a friend of his, it also located the £1 million in an off-shore bank account.

Since the man couldn’t (or didn’t want to) justify the source of the money, the Isleworth Crown Court ordered him to repay all £999,713.21 to the Government.

The NMPCU says that this is the highest value confiscated in its five-year history.

Via Mobile News CWP

• Mobile money transfer users to reach 100 million by 2013
• Nokia borrows €500 million from EIB for investing in software research, development
• Employee steals Sony Ericsson phone prototypes, gets caught before unveiling them
• $1 million worth of mobile phones stolen in Russia yesterday
• NTT DOCOMO launches PayPal-like service for mobile phones

The handset is built using an “ancient steel forging” technique that increases the metal’s hardness. Apparently, said technique was used throughout the centuries to make, for example, Samurai swords (katana) or Indian Wootz swords – which kinda explains the phone’s fierce look

The specs of Vertu Damascus Steel are probably similar to the ones found in all the Ascent Ti phones, so they should include: a QVGA display, S40 UI, GSM/UMTS connectivity, a 3.2MP camera with LED flash, and 4GB of internal memory.

Vertu Ascent Ti Damascus Steel will be available in a limited 100-units edition, each of the units coming with unique hand-made swirl designs. The phone’s price is not known at the moment.

Via Sybarites

• Vertu Ascent Ti Carbon Fibre collection announced
• Vertu Constellation F to be the first Vertu clamshell phone
• Vertu and Ferrari Together Again for Ascent Ti Collection
• Vertu / NTT DoCoMo MVNO officially launches as Vertu Club
• Vertu Constellation Pure phones have ceramic keypads

The Grand 350PRL certainly looks like nothing that Mobiado launched until now, somewhat resembling the Nokia E71 – but only a bit, if you consider its overall aspect.

Like all the Mobiado phones, Grand 350PRL has a body that’s CNC machined from aircraft aluminum and plated with black nickel. Other luxurious materials used: sapphire crystal, ruby crystal and “lustrous mother of pearl.”

The 350PRL comes in four color versions: black, white, gold and pink.

The features of Mobiado Grand 350PRL include:

• GSM/EGSM 850/900/1800/1900 connectivity
• HSPDA
• 2.36 inch display with 16 million colors
• Wi-Fi
• GPS
• 3.2MP camera
• Bluetooth
• USB
• 2.5mm headset jack

Mobiado Grand 350PRL will retail for $2,600 (€1,840) plus applicable taxes.

Via Mobiado

• Mobiado Professional 105GCB Rose announced
• Mobiado intros Professional 105 EM Special Edition and 105 EM CLB luxury phones
• Mobiado Unveils Professional 105GMT White Luxury Watchphone
• Mobiado Professional 105GMT Stealth and 105GMT Antique unveiled
• Mobiado Grand 350 Pioneer luxury phone pays homage to NASA

Well, the Canadian company is apparently getting ready to unveil a new phone that will have a full QWERTY keyboard – this could be the world’s first luxury messaging phone. 

According to Mobileburn, the new QWERTY handset is part of an upcoming series called Mobiado Grand Line.

Reportedly, the phone is built out of materials like mother of pearl (also known as nacre) and it might also have a sapphire crystal display.   

We’ll bring more about this as soon as new details emerge.

• Mobiado Grand Line collection debuts with the QWERTY-equipped Grand 350PRL
• Mobiado Grand 350 Pioneer luxury phone pays homage to NASA
• Mobiado introduces Professional 105 EM in Cocobolo, Ebony and 24-K Gold
• Mobiado Unveils Professional 105GMT White Luxury Watchphone
• Mobiado intros Professional 105 EM Special Edition and 105 EM CLB luxury phones

In the purest Mobiado tradition, the 105GCB Rose comes with a case built out of sapphire crystal and plated with 18K gold – rose gold, more exactly.

It also has sapphire crystal keys that are hand-painted with the same type of 18K rose gold.  

Moreover, the phone has “gun metal black stainless steel screws” and a unique, patent-pending battery cover mechanism.

The specs of Mobiado Professional 105GCB Rose include:

• Quad-band GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• Dual band WCDMA 850/2100 MHz
• 2 inch QVGA display with 16 million colors
• Bluetooth
• 2MP camera with video recording
• 1GB of internal memory

The phone’s price was not announced, but you can get it unlocked, probably for a considerable amount of money. 

Via Mobiado

• Mobiado Professional 105GMT Stealth and 105GMT Antique unveiled
• Mobiado intros Professional 105 EM Special Edition and 105 EM CLB luxury phones
• Mobiado Professional 105GMT Gold: a mechanical watch mobile phone
• Mobiado Unveils Professional 105GMT White Luxury Watchphone
• Mobiado introduces Professional 105 EM in Cocobolo, Ebony and 24-K Gold

The Gresso Ultramarine Gold comes in a blue case, representing “strength and serenity”, while the Lady Gold has a “brilliant red color”, being an “ode to femininity, to elegance and to beauty” – Gresso’s words, not ours.    

Except for their color, the phones don’t differ too much, being built out of materials like titanium, high-tech ceramics and 18K gold.

When it comes to features, the new handsets are similar to the old Gresso ones, offering Windows Mobile 6.0 Standard, Bluetooth, GSM/GPRS connectivity and 2GB of internal memory.  

The Lady Gold and Ultramarine Gold phones are cheaper than the Lady Diamond: only €4,800 ($6,525) a piece. The collections are limited to 15 pieces.  

Via Gresso

• $5,500 Gresso Lady Diamond phone announced
• Gresso Skeleton Gold phone launched for $4400
• Gresso’s White Diamond Collection for the affluent
• Gresso Grand Monaco phones are “inspired by Formula 1 racing”
• Gresso intros Avantgarde Skeleton Collection for the well-endowed

The GoldVish Revolution is a weird candybar that looks like a mix between Motorola Aura and a Mobiado phone. 

The device is covered in diamonds, as well as pink and white gold.

Below the small display and the keypad, there’s a mechanical watch assembled by Swiss watchmaker Frederic Jouvenot. 

Only 9 units of the GoldVish Revolution will be made. Each cost €369,000 ($488,150), but it’s not clear yet when they will be available.  

As for its specs, the handset is said to come with “the latest mobile technology” – and that about all we know. 

Via Mobile-review

• Mobiado Professional 105GMT Gold: a mechanical watch mobile phone
• Ulysse Nardin Chairman phone combines luxurious looks with kinetic energy
• Luxury Mobile Phone Named: Tag Heuer Meridiist
• Handyuhr iWatch M860 – dual SIM watch phone from Switzerland
• Mobiado Professional 105GMT Stealth and 105GMT Antique unveiled

Unlike many other luxury phones, the Chairman has a pretty cool set of features, starting with the 2.8 inch multi-touch display and the finger print recognition sensor for unlocking the screen.

Manufactured from “the finest materials”, Ulysse Nardin’s handset includes a mechanical watch. This will not only tell you the time, but it also helps you charge the battery, thanks to the kinetic energy developed by the watch’s moving rotor.

Other features include:

• Wi-Fi
• 5 MP camera
• E-mail and Internet application

The price of Ulysse Nardin Chairman was not unveiled. However, according to the manufacturer, “only a limited number of Chairman smart phones will be produced each year”.

The handset will be available in five color versions: Rose Gold, Rose Gold & Steel, Rose Gold & Blue, Steel & Blue and Stealth Black.

Source: Ulysse Nardin via Engadget

• Mobiado Professional 105GCB Rose announced
• Mobiado Professional 105GMT Stealth and 105GMT Antique unveiled
• Gresso Lady Gold and Ultramarine Gold phones launched
• Motorola RAZR2 V8 Antique Rose phone revealed
• Nokia 6316s, 3806 and 1506 officially announced in China

After the Skeleton Gold, the Russian company has now launched the Gresso Lady Diamond, a handset obviously designed for the ladies.

More exactly, for ladies who can afford to pay $5,500 on a phone, because that’s the price of a Gresso Lady Diamond.

The phone comes in a very limited edition: only 8 units are made. And while I do find it good-looking, I can’t help thinking that it’s way too expensive.

Of course, its high price is somehow justified by the materials the device is built from, including “high-tech ceramic of Magenta Diamond color”, 18K gold, 4 white diamonds (on the navigation keys) and genuine leather.

On the back of the phone, we can see the transparent sapphire crystal cover, which has become a trademark for Gresso devices.

When it comes to technical specs, the handset offers Windows Mobile 6 Standard, GSM/GPRS connectivity, Bluetooth, Music player, a 2MP camera and 2GB of onboard memory.

The Gresso Lady Diamond is available starting today, but it looks like you can only get it from Russia.

Via Gresso

• Gresso Lady Gold and Ultramarine Gold phones launched
• Gresso Skeleton Gold phone launched for $4400
• Gresso intros Avantgarde Skeleton Collection for the well-endowed
• Gresso Avangarde Sol and Luna. Lot’s of gold and hardwood
• Mobiado Unveils Professional 105GMT White Luxury Watchphone

And he proved that again at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

When we all were busily running around reporting on all the new mobile products , Eldar was sneaking inside the closed demo rooms of Nokia, Motorola and others to check out what these companies are preparing to launch as far as in 2011.

Lucky for us Eldar has started sharing some bits and pieces about these things on his personal blog and in some other public places. (Disclaimer: everything below is only rumors, but considering the source, I put a lot of trust in them)

Let’s start with some pretty far out stuff.

Nokia Sparrow multi-core computer running Linux

ARM’s multi-core Sparrow chip has just been announced last week, and Nokia is already working on it’s first compact mobile computer with some blow-out specs, running Linux OS on this CPU. But don’t get your hopes up – this Nokia device is slated only for 2011 release.

Eldar got to play some with the early prototype and found it mighty interesting.

The design of Nokia Sparrow device does not follow the current netbook trend, going more the MID way, with some passing resemblance to Nokia N800 internet tablet.

It will have multi-slide keyboard, with different layouts/keys revealed as you slide it in different directions. The display also slides in several directions for different functions – think Nokia N97 tilting display.

The new Nokia computer has a very interesting keyboard with diamond shaped, elevated keys inverted to each other. At first glance it seems very uncomfortable – the keys are pretty small (about half the size of normal key), actually the device itself is rather small. But when you start typing on it, it works very well. It is very difficult to hit multiple keys with a finger, even on purpose.

The Nokia Sparrow computer has a novel, transparent widget based interface. Each running application gets it’s own semi-transparent widget to put it’s content in. Multiple applications can be stored in memory “for months”. E.g. when you are writing a document or e-mail, just swipe the finger through the screen and semi-transparent panels with active or pre-set applications and their content pop-up. Select one and you can start working with it at once.

Well, that’s about it for now. I asked our Ilinca to draw up something from the musings above. What with all the things lost in translation, and not really very exhaustive visual description from Eldar, I’m sure it’s pretty far off the real thing. But one needs to start somewhere:

Understanding Android

Android is pretty well stuck right now, because of Google, which does not really want to strongly promote Android devices yet. They have a key partner – HTC – which already released/announced phones (Dream, Magic) based on Android 1.0.

The first release of Android OS – it’s  Google making a claim for the future position in mobile OS market. It is  more like a marketing tool to train the  public on Android and also to give the developers a live device to make the apps for. Though there will be some interesting new Android devices coming from HTC and others later this year.

Android 2.0 looks pretty sad. Android won’t get to the level Google and partners want to see it on until releases 3.0 and 4.0. It has multiple partners working on Android 3.0  devices and  there were some demos of the handsets with Android 3 in closed showrooms. They look fantastic. The problem is that Android 3.0 is not slated for release until the mid of 2010, with version 4 to follow in 2011. So it will be a while until Android devices reach their full potential.

Some good news for Motorola?

There might have been a reason why Motorola looked so lame at MWC 09. According to Eldar:

The biggest surprise of the show? Motorola –no doubt about it. 100, 1000 percent. Elegant and very unusual. Common words hide very uncommon things. Someone smart, very smart joined the company. And clearly with the experience not from the University bench.

Disinformation is pouring through all the channels inside the company and everyone gets his own, different spin. The foot solders get one part of the picture, which, while using the right words totally confuses true meaning. Middle management gets confided with a bigger part of the story, as a “big secret”. Higher level managers outside the States get one more peace of the puzzle. But even the partners of the company do not have the full info.

Everyone is confused, competitors won’t even look Motorola’s way, which allows it to do some very unusual things.

Will it work or not? I won’t say. Actually I can’t say, because I’m not sure myself yet. The basic idea is very simple and elegant. It could work.

But before it get’s public, there will still be some announcements of the models we are used to. So do not expect anything exciting from the next few announcements. They are just placeholders.

Motorola is also definitely working on an Android device. And will use the chassis of one of the recently cancelled models. It may be VE1/RAZR3/Ruby, but I am not sure about that. Eldar mentions that there’s something of the RAZR style in the new phone, but it’s actually kind of new form factor, which will be launched at the end of the year.

The most interesting thing about the new Motorola Android phone is that it is not targeting the mass market. It’s aiming towards the truly  luxury one. Something on the theme of Moto Aura – expensive chassis and unusual services, somewhat comparable to Concierge from Vertu.

Other interesting tidbits

Sony Idou presented at MWC was only a plastic mock-up. SE does not have a working Idou model yet. And, regarding the 12mpx camera, Sony Ericsson themselves have not yet seen the actual camera modules.

Windows Mobile ain’t doing too well. Plans to reduce the WM license price by half are under way, just to keep WM handset makers on board. Very many of them are looking Google’s way.

About WM Dialer app. It was a major problem in earlier WM versions, resulting in dropped and lost calls, etc;. The reason was pretty bad quality programming of dialer app, which was constantly reloading every 30 mins. When  Eldar asked some Microsoft reps whether they solved the problem and rewrote the Dialer app, the answer was – “Yes, sure, everything’s OK now.  We don’t have to relaunch it anymore, now we have a separate utility that clears memory from it… every 15 mins…”

Well, that’s about all I was able to fish out of Eldar’s musings for now.

But stay tuned

Source: Eldar Murtazin Live Journal,  Radio-T podcast (mp3 in Russian)

• T-Mobile’s Motorola Morrison spotted in the wild
• Motorola Dext / Cliq previewed. Low price apparently confirmed
• 50% of HTC phones to run on Android next year?
• Motorola RAZR3/Ruby canceled
• T-Mobile USA’s second Android phone to come this month, possibly not from HTC

Not too different from the Avantgarde Skeleton, the Gresso Skeleton Gold is, obviously, dressed in more gold.

Its 23 functional keys are “executed of 18k gold”, while its QVGA screen is protected by hand-polished 42k sapphire glass. Of course, the new phone also has that Gresso-style transparent sapphire glass back panel.

Feature-wise, nothing has changed, so the Skeleton Gold comes with Windows Mobile 6.0 Standard, Bluetooth, MP3 Player, 2MP camera and 2GB of internal memory.

Gresso Skeleton Gold is available as of now, for the retail price of $4,400 (about €3,450). Only 50 units will be sold, so this is quite a limited edition.

Via Gresso

• Gresso Avangarde Sol and Luna. Lot’s of gold and hardwood
• Gresso intros Avantgarde Skeleton Collection for the well-endowed
• $5,500 Gresso Lady Diamond phone announced
• Gresso Lady Gold and Ultramarine Gold phones launched
• GResso luxury phone with Black Diamonds

Its latest collection is called Vertu Constellation Pure and it includes handsets in four color versions: Pure White, Pure Black, Pure Silver and Pure Chocolate. Only 2,500 units of each color will be manufactured.

The phones are built from steel, leather and ceramics – actually, the whole keypad and the earpiece is made out of ceramic materials. It’s said that Vertu’s designers spent two years in order to create the perfectly-colored ceramic. 

The handsets’ features were not unveiled, but they’re probably similar to the ones found in the older Vertu Constellation phones, thus including quad-band GSM connectivity, Bluetooth and MMS.

The Constellation Pure collection is not yet featured on Vertu’s official website, but it will probably appear there in the next few days. Until then, you can ask yourself if €6,800 (around $8,560) is a good price for a Vertu Constellation Pure phone – because that’s how much one unit will cost.

The White and Black versions of Vertu Constellation Pure will be on sale starting March 1, while the Silver and Chocolate ones should be available in September.

Via ModelVita

• Vertu Constellation F Ayxta luxury clamshell announced
• Vertu Constellation Rococo Collection Phones: The Real Luxury Phones
• Vertu Constellation F to be the first Vertu clamshell phone
• Vertu Ascent Ti Carbon Fibre collection announced
• Vertu Constellation Ayxta video preview

The Royal resembles the Carbon Arte, but brings more luxury to the table. It’s not covered in carbon, but in solid platinum fixed with 8 handmade platinum screws.

On the sides, Nokia Royal hosts around 1160 tiny diamonds that totalize about 8.2 carats. And to make it all even more luxurious, the handset comes in a handmade box built from granite and leather.    

If you ask me, the phone doesn’t look that good. But hey, it’s not the first and certainly not the last luxury device that’s not as beautiful as its makers want us to believe it is.

The Royal is crafted in the UK by Goldstriker’s Stuart and Katherine Hughes. Only 50 units of it will be created. And, although its price is not known yet, it will surely be an extremely high one.
 
The new luxury Nokia is set to be launched on January 31, at the Colette boutique in Paris. Interested customers will be able to buy it directly from there, as well as online, via Stuart and Katherine Hughes’ website (a weird sound plays after you access it, by the way).

Via Product-reviews.net

• Nokia announces 8800 Carbon Arte to show what real luxury is all about
• Nokia 8800 Gold Arte surfaces, dressed in leather and (of course) gold
• Rumored Nokia 8900 becomes Nokia 8800 Arte & Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte
• Nokia N85 gets official in private online meeting, no mention of the N79 or Tube
• Vertu Ascent Ti Carbon Fibre collection announced

I’m not sure why this is called Kings Button and not King’s Button, but that’s not really important. The “button” part is easily understandable, though: the iPhone’s home button is encrusted with a huge 6.6 carat diamond of  “rare beauty”.

Apart from that, the smartphone is also covered in 18 carat yellow gold, rose gold, white gold and approximately 138 small diamonds.

Here’s how the iPhone 3G Kings Button looks:

As I already said, if you feel like a king and your heart commands you to buy this new and obscenely luxurious iPhone 3G, you have to pay 1,790,000 Euros – the equivalent of around 2,418,111 USD. So, any takers?

Source: Peter Aloisson      

• Mobiado Unveils Professional 105GMT White Luxury Watchphone
• Gresso’s White Diamond Collection for the affluent
• Mobiado Professional 105GCB Rose announced
• Nokia 8800 Gold Arte surfaces, dressed in leather and (of course) gold
• Digg founder predicts new iPhone next week, price cut on old model

Apart from its color and the materials used in its creation, Nokia 8800 Gold Arte is similar to the other Arte phones (the Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte, for example).

So what we have here is yet another Arte slider with mid-end features and luxurious design.

Here’s what the phone looks like:

The main specs and capabilities of Nokia 8800 Gold Arte include:

• Tri-band GSM (900 / 1800 / 1900) and WCDMA 2100 connectivity
• A 2 inch OLED display with 240 x 320 pixels and 16 million colors
• Series 40 5th Edition interface, Feature Pack 1
• Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
• Opera Mini
• A 3.2MP camera with autofocus
• USB 2.0
• 4GB of internal memory
• 150 grams
• 109 x 45.6 x 14.6 mm

Nokia didn’t say when the 8800 Gold Arte will be available for purchase. The handset’s price is also unknown for the moment.  

Via Nokia

• Mobiado Professional 105GMT Stealth and 105GMT Antique unveiled
• Mobiado Professional 105GMT Gold: a mechanical watch mobile phone
• Rumored Nokia 8900 becomes Nokia 8800 Arte & Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte
• Mobiado intros Professional 105 EM Special Edition and 105 EM CLB luxury phones
• Nokia Erdos 8800 luxury phone appears in video

This Windows Mobile 6.0 smartphone sports a titanium alloy casing “with high-tech ceramic coverage,” and a stainless steel battery case with leather cover and magnet release. The Gresso logo is plastered onto the back side of this phone, and covered with 10 micron gold.

But while this handset sounds mighty fine when talking about its hardware, I’m afraid I can’t say the same about its software and other features. Sapphire crystal glass makes up the transparent back side, which is a good thing, but it only comes with a sad 240 x 320 display and Bluetooth 1.2.

Only 15 units of this $5,000 phone will ever be produced, so you better be quick to line up for it, lest you lose an opportunity to spend your money blindly on an underpowered yet uniquely sexy mobile phone.

Via Engadget

• Gresso Skeleton Gold phone launched for $4400
• Gresso Avangarde Sol and Luna. Lot’s of gold and hardwood
• $5,500 Gresso Lady Diamond phone announced
• GResso luxury phone with Black Diamonds
• Gresso’s White Diamond Collection for the affluent

The new MVNO’s official name will be Vertu Club. A perfect moniker for an operator that plans to sell exclusivist handsets like the recently-appeared Vertu Boucheron 150, isn’t it?

Vertu Club will function on a premium membership basis. The first Japanese Vertu store, called Ginza Flagship Store and located in Tokyo, will open its gates on February 19, 2009.

However, Vertu Club services will only be available starting the second quarter of 2009. Until then, customers who visit the Ginza Flagship Store will be able to buy unlocked  handsets like Vertu Ascent Ti, Vertu Ascent Ti Ferrari and Vertu Signature.

Source: Vertu (PDF link)

• Nokia’s Vertu to set up shop and market high-end models in Japan
• Vertu Ascent Ti Carbon Fibre collection announced
• Vertu Ascent Ti Damascus Steel is tough like a sword
• Vertu and Ferrari Together Again for Ascent Ti Collection
• NTT DoCoMo cancels Nokia E71 after Nokia ditches Japan

Created to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Boucheron French jewelry house, the handset does look like a Vertu, but a crippled and weird one. And if it’s beautiful or not, it’s up for you to decide.

Apparently, the phone is built out of a single piece of massive gold. Its creation is said to take more than 2.000 hours (since it’s hand made), which lead us to believe that there won’t be to many units of it around.

The handset comes in a luxury wooden case that looks like it’s made by a pirate for his treasure(s).

There are no details about the features of Vertu Boucheron 150, save for the existence of 3G connectivity.

The phone’s price was not announced, but it’s rumored to be of more than $30.000.

Via Mobile-review

• Vertu / NTT DoCoMo MVNO officially launches as Vertu Club
• Vertu Ascent Ti Damascus Steel is tough like a sword
• Vertu Constellation F to be the first Vertu clamshell phone
• Vertu and Ferrari Together Again for Ascent Ti Collection
• Vertu Constellation Ayxta video preview

Keeping the Mobiado tradition, the 105GMT Gold is made from large pieces of sapphire crystal, Ebony wood and a CNC machined frame that’s finished with a 24-Carat gold coating. The phone’s keypad is built from sapphire crystal as well, and hand painted with the same kind of gold mentioned above. 

But the most interesting aspect about the new device is that it’s a combination between a phone and a mechanical watch. It features a Discovery watch mechanism, incorporated into the lower side of the case. The Swiss watches have 25 jeweled bearings and are gold-painted. They are also protected by Mobiado’s 3D shock absorbing system.

The phone-only features of 105GMT Gold include:

• Quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz)
• Dual band WCDMA connectivity (850 / 2100 MHz)
• 2 inch TFT display with 16.7 million colors and 320 x 240 pixels
• Series 40 5th Edition interface
• Email
• Web browser
• Music & video players
• Video streaming
• Bluetooth 1.2 with EDR
• Micro USB
• 2MP camera with video recording
• 1GB of on-board memory
• Talk time: up to 3.5 hours
• Stand by time: up to 9 days
• 241.4 grams
• 128 x 47.5 x 10.6 mm

The price of Mobiado Professional 105GMT Gold was not announced, but the Canadian manufacturer said the handset would be available in a limited 50-pieces edition.  

• Mobiado Professional 105GMT Stealth and 105GMT Antique unveiled
• Mobiado Professional 105GCB Rose announced
• Mobiado intros Professional 105 EM Special Edition and 105 EM CLB luxury phones
• Mobiado Unveils Professional 105GMT White Luxury Watchphone
• Mobiado introduces Professional 105 EM in Cocobolo, Ebony and 24-K Gold

It’s unusual design did not help Samsung B&O Serena find many willing customers, and earlier this year B&O announced that it is leaving the handset business altogether.

So for the next try on luxury market Samsung has decided to go it alone with Samsung Ego S9402 phone we told you about few weeks ago.

Today Samsung Ego GT-S9402 has been launched officially.

As you can see, this time Samsung has decided to forgo a fancy design with it’s Ego phone  and opted for a classical candybar form factor. And for some “luxury” advanced materials.

According to the official PR the body of S9402 Samsung Ego phone is made of “liquidmetal” composite alloy developed by Caltech, which is “3 times stronger, can withstand 1.8 times the pressure, is 1.6 time more flexible, has 3 times better vibration absorbption and  100% lower termal conductivity then  titanium“.

Samsung Ego is also a DuoS phone that works with 2 SIM cards.

Other Samsung Ego S9402 specs include:

• Triband GSM (900/1800/1900 Mhz), GPRS/EDGE connectivity on 1st SIM card
• Dual band (900/1800 Mhz), GPRS/EDGE connectivity on 2nd SIM card
• 2? 262K color QVGA AMOLED display
• 5 mpx camera with autofocus, image stabilization, smile detection, WDR and LED flash
• FM Radio with RDS
• 1 GB of built-in memory
• microSDHC memory card slot (up to 8 GB)
• Bluetooth 2.0 and USB
• 960 mAh battery
• Dimensions: 115 x 48 x 16 mm
• Weight: 140 g

Except for the lack of 3G, Samsung Ego S9402 has some pretty high end specs and should be a serious competitor to Motorola Aura and Nokia 8800 luxury phones.

The retail Samsung Ego price is expected to be somewhere around 1200 EUR.

• Samsung S9402 DuoS- a luxury dual SIM card phone
• Samsung E1110 and Samsung E2510: new basic South Korean phones
• Samsung S5600 and S5230 affordable touchscreen handsets announced
• Samsung P520 Touchscreen Card Phone
• AT&T Samsung Propel Pro available starting today

Recently, Motorola announced the Aura, a $2,000 luxury handset with a unique design. In all, there isn’t really anything extraordinary about it except for its price tag, but there is now, courtesy of Motorola’s legal department.

According to Register Hardware, they received a tip concerning one of Motorola’s most expensive phones ever. The gist of it: the Motorola Aura can’t be sold on eBay, or anywhere else. This is done to “maintain Aura’s glow of exclusivity,” and first-hand buyers will have to “sign into a contract that states they can’t sell it on eBay.”

To top it off, Motorola gives Aura owners a choice of selling the said handset back to the manufacturer from which they bought it from. But while there’s no word on how much Motorola is willing to buy back an Aura for, you can bet that it’s probably more or less half the original selling price.

You really think you can sell more phones this way, eh Moto? How cute. Since the Aura won’t be coming out until December at least, we expect to learn more about this scheme by then.

Via Reg Hardware

• Motorola Aura now available for $2,000, no less
• Motorola Aura clone surfaces in China
• Motorola Aura Diamond Edition announced, costs $5,730
• More Motorola handset leaks: Moto W388, Moto W396 and Moto VA76r
• Motorola Ivory E18. A luxury phone that almost was

What first gets your attention when seeing the Motorola AURA is its circular display and its stainless steel front pattern inspired by luxury watches. The display is a 1.55-inch one with 16 million colors and a 300 dpi resolution – a first for a circular mobile phone screen. The dislpay is also protected by a grade 1, 62-carat sapphire crystal, which should keep scratches away.

Although Motorola AURA looks like a clamshell, it’s actually not. At least not in the true meaning of the word. The phone’s front side rotates up, helped by a mechanism that includes 130 precision ball bearings and guarantees the same grace at opening, even after you flip the phone 100,000 times. 

Here’s how the AURA looks like, when open:

Motorola AURA is made out of more than 700 individual components, including “gears composed of Rockwell 50-55 hardened steel”, which are coated in the same manner racing engines are.   

(notice that window to the handset’s “mechanical heart” on the back case)

What about the phone’s other features? Well, they’re not bad but not great either. Once again, Motorola has something against 3G connectivity. Here are the main specs of AURA:

• Quad band GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz with GPRS, EDGE
• Music & video players
• 2 MP fixed focus camera with video recording
• SMS & MMS 
• POP3/IMAP e-mail
• “Open source” browser
• CrystalTalk technology
• 2GB of internal memory
• Stereo Bluetooth 2.0, A2DP and EDR
• USB 2.0
• 96.87 x 47.60 x 18.55 mm, 141 grams
• Talk time: up to 7.3 hours
• Stand by time: up to 400 hours

Motorola AURA will be released on December 4, via the Moto Store, so it will probably make a perfect gift for many rich mobile users. And I say “rich” because the handset will cost you $1,999.99. 

Meanwhile, you can experience the new phone at this Motorola webpage, especially created for the AURA.  

• Motorola Aura Diamond Edition announced, costs $5,730
• Motorola Aura Makes CES Appearance
• Motorola Aura now available for $2,000, no less
• Motorola Aura clone surfaces in China
• Motorola Ivory E18. A luxury phone that almost was

The first two phones are part of the Professional 105 EM Special Edition series and are built from exquisite materials like maple burl wood, titanium, sapphire crystal and 24K gold.

Both the 105 EM Special Edition handsets feature a patent pending hidden sliding battery cover mechanism; also, their battery cover is made from a single piece of sapphire crystal.

The specs of Professional 105 EM White and Professional 105 EM Red (pictured above) are:

• Quad band GSM/EGSM and dual band WCDMA (850 / 2100) connectivity
• 2 inch display with 16 million colors
• 2 MP camera with video recording
• Music player
• Bluetooth
• Micro USB
• More than 1GB of internal memory (not sure what “more” means)

Professional 105 EM CLB Black and Professional 105 EM CLB Silver (pictured below) have the same specs as the two other new Mobiado phones. Their look is different though, and not exactly in a good way. 

All the four new Mobiado devices will be available unlocked, but unfortunately their release date and prices were not announced. I’m sure the phones are far from being affordable though. 

Source: Mobiado

• Mobiado Professional 105GCB Rose announced
• Mobiado Professional 105GMT Stealth and 105GMT Antique unveiled
• Mobiado Grand Line collection debuts with the QWERTY-equipped Grand 350PRL
• Mobiado Unveils Professional 105GMT White Luxury Watchphone
• Mobiado introduces Professional 105 EM in Cocobolo, Ebony and 24-K Gold

To make us take these words seriously, the Russian manufacturer INCRUDO has armored the Phantom with a 2-3 mm coating made from titanium alloy. 

The coating turned the handset into a bulky and heavy one that measures 106 x 45 x 18 millimeters and weighs 230 grams. And no, that is not a typo, it’s 230, not 130. Generally, phantoms are known as lightweight beings, but at this weight, the handset had better been named INCRUDO Dinosaur.

Anyway, apart form its heavy armor, INCRUDO Phantom also features:

• A QVGA sapphire crystal display with 16 million colors
• A blue sapphire on the navigation key
• 8GB of internal memory
• GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity
• A 3.2 MP camera with video
• Email, Web browser
• Bluetooth & USB

Not that bad for a device that wants to be a luxury accessory first, and only after that a phone.

Mind you, the handset is part of an extremely limited edition: only 10 such Phantoms will exist in the world, so its future 10 buyers will definitely have reasons to rejoice after the Phantom phone reaches them.  

Speaking of buyers, INCRUDO Phantom has a retail price of 21,750 Russian rubles (about $850) and, apparently, it can be found in several Euroset stores from Moscow.   

So, are there any users who want to torture their pockets wit this heavy-weight Phantom? 

Source: INCRUDO

• Mobiado Unveils Professional 105GMT White Luxury Watchphone
• Rumored Nokia 8900 becomes Nokia 8800 Arte & Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte
• Mobiado to launch a Grand Line luxury QWERTY phone?
• BlackBerry 8320 coming to AT&T this month
• Mobiado unveils Professional 105 ZAF, world’s thinnest luxury phone

Well today we have some good news for you.

It seems that Sagem and Porsche Design studio has something interesting brewing in their labs. A second take on a Porsche branded mobile phone. This time it’s a clamshell – Sagem /Porsche P9522.

As you can see, the new Porsche 9522 has got the looks. And the specs in a new handset are also nothing to sneer at. Well, except for the lame no 3G, only GSM/EDGE connectivity part.

Other Porsche /Sagem P9522 specs include:

• 2.8″ touchscreen with reinforced mineral glass
• 5 megapixel camera
• built-in GPS receiver
• Wi-Fi connectivity
• built-in fingerprint reader

The price of  Porsche P9522 is expected to be around 600 EUR and it should start shipping next month in France.

Source: Ecran Mobile

• Porsche Design P’9522 gloriously passes through FCC, sans 3G though
• Sagem to launch Puma phone ahead of 2010 FIFA World Cup
• Samsung F839 becomes official in China
• Samsung S8300 – an impressive upgrade to Soul
• Samsung F310/B&O Serenata music phone

There have been various models in Vertu’s luxury handset line now, and it is unclear which models exactly will be sold in Japan. Regardless of which, they will likely be priced from 890,000 yen (US$8,422) to 5 million yen.

It is still not confirmed whether NTT DoCoMo Inc. or Softbank Mobile Corp. will be exclusive carrier launching the Vertu phones, or if there will be any other customizations applied to the handsets when they are released in the Japanese market.

Via Trading Markets

• Vertu / NTT DoCoMo MVNO officially launches as Vertu Club
• Vertu Constellation F to be the first Vertu clamshell phone
• NEC to re-launch phones outside Japan, probably in Europe
• Nokia to stop selling cellphones in Japan
• Vertu Boucheron 150 – beautiful or just crippled?

OK, so we didn’t quite get what we all expected (or wished for), since there was no mention of the highly-rumored Nokia Tube touchscreen phone as well as the recently faked Nokia N79, but the Nokia N85 proves to be a promising phone in itself.

The Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte was announced just yesterday, actually, so that leaves us with only the Nokia N85’s official announcement. From the scheme of handset groupings pictured above, we see that the Nokia N85 is put right next to the Nokia N96 at the bottom, captioned with the title “Connected Fusions.”

Apparently, Nokia likes to put their dual-sliding handsets together, as the Nokia N85 is such, also featuring a 5 megapixel camera, built-in GPS, as well as HSDPA network support.

We can’t know for sure yet what exactly the Nokia N85 will bring to the table, features-wise, but we expect it to be announced some time early next week.

Via Mobile Phone Help Desk

• Nokia announces 8800 Carbon Arte to show what real luxury is all about
• Nokia 8800 Gold Arte surfaces, dressed in leather and (of course) gold
• Nokia Royal comes with 1160 diamonds and 8 platinum screws
• Rumored Nokia 8900 becomes Nokia 8800 Arte & Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte
• Vertu Ascent Ti Carbon Fibre collection announced

The Mobiado Lucido takes cues from the oh-so-exclusive Mobiado Luminoso, and is fashioned-just like every other Mobiado phone we’ve seen so far-with a combination of some sapphire crystal, stainless steel, and aircraft aluminum. Only 200 pieces of it will ever be produced. Making it a little something you could call “limited edition.”

It’s a phone that puts form first, but function isn’t that too left behind either. Of course it’ll be unlocked and will work fine with any GSM operator (as long as you’re within cell range). And not only can you take it on cross-country trips, but also across continents as it has triband GSM and WCDMA 2100 network coverage.

The Mobiado Lucido also supports MP3, MP4, eAAC+ and AAC multimedia file formats, which you can play on its built-in music player. A 2 megapixel camera takes care of snaps, and memory shouldn’t be a problem since you can feed this baby with up to 2GB, give or take a few MBs.

I believe we have now established that the Mobiado Lucido is a phone that’s expensive, exclusive, and fairly mid-end (features-wise). The only thing left for you to know now is the price. Too bad it wasn’t included in the company’s official announcement, but you can always contact Mobiado for that.

• Mobiado intros new luxury phone, Professional CAMO
• Mobiado unveils Professional 105 ZAF, world’s thinnest luxury phone
• Mobiado Unveils Professional 105GMT White Luxury Watchphone
• Mobiado Professional 105GMT Stealth and 105GMT Antique unveiled
• Mobiado Professional 105GCB Rose announced

Becoming the world’s first luxury retailer to launch its own mobile commerce web site, Polo by Ralph Lauren is riding a wave that’s going to last for quite a while more, since it’s only now beginning to take height.

Polo by Ralph Lauren

Senior Vice President David Lauren of Polo Ralph Lauren Corp said in an interview with Reuters:

“We recognize that in America this is going after somebody who is more comfortable with technology. The truth is that in other countries, it’s becoming a part of their culture. The trend is coming, and as a fashion company it’s very important to identify trends and get ahead of them.”

Just imagine-you can get new Ralph Lauren’s without even setting a foot outside your door. Just the way we all like it right? Expect the whole thing to go full blast later this month.

Via Reuters

• Samsung seeking to grow in Finland
• Nokia sees increasing role of Linux in handsets
• Symbian Foundation welcomes 14 new members – HP, MySpace and Qualcomm included
• E-waves chip from Omega Pharma withdrawn before sales begin
• Nokia E66 and E71 to be Released Next Week?

To retail for $5,000, you’d think they’d go through the trouble of making this cellphone water-proof, shock-proof, or ridicule-proof, at least. But no, adding even more insult to any potential buyer’s injury, the Dior Mini doesn’t look like the special handset it’s marketed to be.

And as everyone is complaining about how the iPhone is ridiculously high-priced at $500, I think it’s safe to say that no one has heard of this phone yet.

In any case, this handset will soon be on its way to willing victims, but if I want any phone to be on the “Will It Blend?” show more than anything, it would definitely be this. Agree?

Via Intomobile

• Cristian Dior phone is coming. For $3500-5000 and more a pop
• Rumor: Christian Dior mobile phone coming May 16th
• New Christian Dior luxury phones to come in December 2009
• Samsung Instinct Mini / Instinct S30 in leaked images?
• Samsung SPH-M810 passes the FCC, could be Instinct Mini

The materials used to build the Tag Heuer Meridiist varies between metal, leather and sapphire crystal. Specifically, the display is made of scratch-proof sapphire crystal, which would eliminate the need for third-party screen protectors.

The said sapphire crystal display only measures 1.9-inches and has QVGA resolution, but that should be enough for casual cellphone users. A secondary OLED screen is also present up top to show various status indicators of the phone.

It doesn’t offer much of a fight when it comes to multimedia, but at least its 2 megapixel camera has a sliding lens cover. That would again prevent the phone from acquiring so much as a tiny scratch, but then again if you’re going to pay over a thousand dollars for a phone, you’d expect nothing less.

Expect official release date, market availability, and pricing announcement to be made soon.

Via Mobile Burn

• TAG Heuer MERIDIIST Lamborghini luxury phone announced
• Luxury Mobile Phone Named: Tag Heuer Meridiist
• Pics, specs of new Tag Heuer Meridiist
• Mobiado Unveils Professional 105GMT White Luxury Watchphone
• Mobiado Grand Line collection debuts with the QWERTY-equipped Grand 350PRL

That’s why Goldstriker is now offering the Nokia E71 in its 24ct Gold Edition for only $1,100. I’m sure someone out there will find this “worth it.”

Or is it? The Nokia E71 is wrapped in a fine metallic casing by default, which does a great job at reflecting the light, making it look expensive, and yet avoid any scratches.

But for those who want to experience (or at least show people that they do) the “finer things” in life, the Nokia E71 24ct Gold Edition just might be the one for you.

Via Goldstriker Via Intomobile

• Samsung U600 Black Gold Limited Edition
• Nokia 8800 Gold Arte surfaces, dressed in leather and (of course) gold
• New BlackBerry Kickstart live pics show it needs a diet
• Samsung Ultra Edition 10.9 U600 Slimmest Slider Gets Official
• Nokia 3600 Slide putting fashionable techies at ease

Packing in a 4-inch touchscreen display, 400 MHz Intel processor, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, this model will ensure you have uninterrupted telephony, no matter if you get drowned in dust, water, or even shocked. It’s likely that you’ll lose your batteries before this one does, if you know what I mean.

The US military standards reaching T-Pad is capable of “working under pressure” and perform its designated functions even in sub-zero temperatures and other undesirable conditions.

And just how much will this death-defying smartphone cost you exactly? Oh, just a little something that looks like $2,600. I can just see all the excited readers completely losing interest just now. That, my friends, is what you call comedy.

Via Ubergizmo

• Fast-charging lithium batteries to come in two or three years
• i-mate 810-F – the toughest Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone ever
• I-O Rocks Out With Tiny Bluetooth Keyboard
• KTF: No, we’re not making an Android smartphone with NTT DoCoMo
• Blackberry patents: Angled Slider and RIM Multi-Touch technology

The Mobiado PRO105EM is a typical luxury phone from Mobiado, sold unlocked to work on quad-band GSM/EGSM and dual-band WCDMA networks within within North America, Europe, Africa, Asia- Pacific, and South America.

It sports a middle-of-the-road 2 megapixel camera, more than 1GB of internal memory, 2-inch display supporting up to 16 million colors, built-in music player and connectivity options via Bluetooth and microUSB.

The real highlight of the Mobiado PRO105EM, though, is in the materials from which it is constructed, as is every phone from Mobiado’s Professional line, like the Mobiado Professional 105 ZAF.

The Professional 105 EM is made from either of two hardwoods, Cocobolo and Ebony. And since no two trees have exactly the same layout of rings, no two Mobiado PRO105EM phones look alike. The sapphire crystal buttons on the keypad have been painted black to add to the look of sophistication, and the casing is constructed from anodized aluminum.

A last, higher-end version, is also available, with the addition of 24 karat gold into the mix, in the form of the Mobiado Professional 105 GCB. Its frame is CNC machined from solid brass and is then finished with a 5 micron thick 24-karat gold plating. Even the screws on the phone are gold plated brass. And the black paint on the keypad buttons is replaced by 24-karat gold, hand-painted onto each and every button, as with all the the lettering and symbols on both the PRO105EM and PRO105GCB.

There is no word yet on pricing but from the spec sheet, it could possible be best described as “astronimical.”

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