Dubbed as “The Quintessentially English Smartphone,” British luxury smartphone maker Vertu finally launched its brand new handset named ‘Aster’ last week. The mid-tier luxury smartphone comes with a more affordable price-tag and though it’s a unisex smartphone, the Vertu Aster was created with female customers in mind. Internally, this titanium Android handset is identical to the company’s flagship luxury phone ‘Signature Touch’ but wrapped in a more contemporary design. It has a 4.7-inch 1080p display, 5.1-inch 117 carat sapphire screen, 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 chipset, 13MP rear camera certified by Hasselblad and a 2.1Mp front facing shooter, 64GB of internal storage, 2,275mAh battery, front stereo speakers, NFC, Qi wireless charging and great LTE compatibility.
The Aster runs Android 4.4 KitKat, with a Vertu custom UI layered on top. In terms of luxury, besides the titanium and sapphire, the handcrafted Vertu Aster features a hand-polished ruby key and for the back you have a choice of Calf leather (Onyx, Lagoon, Blush), Karung snake skin (Caviar, Tangerine, Raspberry) and Cognac Ostrich. Prices start at $6,900, climbing up to $9,700 depending on your choice of back material, making it a lot cheaper than the Signature Touch’s $10,300 base price. The Aster is on sale in the UK as of now and will be rolling out globally in the coming months.
[Vertu]
