Vertu's Ascent Ti Damascus Steel makes being wealthy slightly more stylish

Stainless steel's great, but there's a very simple problem with the alloy that's plagued mankind for hundreds of years: it doesn't have any pattern on it. Happily, that's easily solved with a quick trip to Vertu's British headquarters, where master craftsmen are hard at work hand-carving designs into exactly 100 copies of the company's new Ascent Ti Damascus Steel -- just the latest in a long line of five-figure handsets with two-figure functionality. Yes, true, the Ascent Ti series features 3G, but even that isn't enough to justify the kidneys and other organs you'll have to sell (or the pittance you'll have to withdraw from the trust fund, depending on your lifestyle) to become the proud owner of one of these. Is it seriously time to upgrade the Ferrari version already?

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 11th 2009 9:06AM]

Looks like an alien artifact.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 11th 2009 10:43AM]

But... You don't carve patterns into Damascus Steel. Genuine Damascus Steel has those patterns naturally as part of the forging process.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 11th 2009 12:16PM]

The problem with Vertu is that they simply put “bling” on the same basic internals available on mediocre models (chrome on a Chevy). They need to step up the game Bugatti style by bling out models that are near concept and not readily available to the general public until much later. An n97 Vertu version released last year would have been, spot on (having true and wannabe Ballerz struggling to get their hands on one), leaving the rest of us drooling the same drool as if a Bugatti drove by...

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 11th 2009 12:56PM]

You make a great point, except that Vertu's line seems to draw a distinction between "trendy" and "exclusive". I don't think they even WANT to come out with the next iPhone, because it would draw too much attention to the brand.

They seem to want to be a Bentley rather than a Lamborghini.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 11th 2009 1:14PM]

Looks like somebodies tool box mated with their Blackberry Pearl

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 11th 2009 8:07PM]

Who wants to spend all that money on some old nokia candy bar phone?