X-bit labs

Vertu Targets Motor Sport Admirers with Phones for $5700.

Category: Mobile

by Anton Shilov

[ 04/03/2006 | 11:17 PM ]

Vertu, a maker of luxurious cell phones, has unveiled its new models designed for those fond of motor sport. The new RaceTrack Legends phones will come with engraved tracks on the backside, will cost its owners about $5700 and will be available in limited quantities of 1000 units per model.

The RaceTrack Legends series is a part of Ascent collection, a family of phones that has been available for a number of years now. The Vertu Ascent is not about the technology, but is all about the luxurious look and feel: it is tri-band phone with Bluetoothm voice dialing capabilities, additional Vertu ring tones; it supports GPRS, multimedia messaging (MMS) and concatenated short messaging (SMS).

The first two RaceTrack Legends models are Monza and Silverstone, later during the year the manufacturer will unveil other editions of the product, each of which will be individually numbered, equipped with a piece of rubber with tire-tread sketch and also come with engraved maps of tracks used for Formula 1 races. Like all Ascent phones, the new RaceTrack Legends will come in metal-leather body, hand-stitched leather will contrast with hard, custom-developed Liquidmetal alloy – a durable, scratch-resistant material with twice the hardness of stainless steel and two times more resilient than other metals, including titanium, according to the company.

Vertu Ascent phone has 240 individual components. The flat panel keypad alone contains over 150 different parts whose design is patented. Each key is manufactured by injecting a stainless steel mixture at high temperature and pressure into an oversize mould. As it cools, the key shrinks by 14% to produce the bevelled keypad design. The keys are then each set on two jewel bearings, to create the unique pivoting action and to guide each key’s movement.

Each Vertu Ascent phone costs about $5700 in the U.S. and approximately €4500 in Europe, when acquired from jewelry or watch stores. Customers may also order customized Vertu phones, which price may exceed $20 000.