For those who enjoy the finer things in life, here’s a smart phone that goes well with your luxury watches. The Vertu Aster is a premium offering that blends craftsmanship with top notch internals to match. This is not your typical run of the mill premium smart phone as Vertu takes pride with its handmade heritage using hand polished materials that’s assembled with precision with hand-turned screws. Unlike previous Vertu models which lag behind in terms of hardware specs, the Aster gets a 4.7″ Full HD display that’s protected with a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal.
To handle all your business on the go, it gets a decent 2.3GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 801 processor with 2GB RAM and 64GB of storage. Taking photos are handled by its 13MP main camera that’s assisted with twin LED flash and there’s also a front facing 2.1MP unit as well. For all your globe-trotting needs, it supports a wide choice of 4G LTE bands with Cat 4 speeds up to 150Mbps.
There’s also NFC, WiFi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity as standard. Out of the box, it runs on the current Android 4.4 KitKat. The battery however is quite scarce at 2,275mAh and for those who don’t fancy charging it like normal people, it supports Qi Wireless charging and surprisingly the charger isn’t bundled with the device.
In terms of build quality, there’s no question that the Vertu Aster is a class above the BlackBerry Porsche Design with the use of Grade 5 titanium alloy. Since it commands a premium price, you can customise the Aster with a wide variety of posh materials such as leather acquired from calf or even ostrich.
According to Vertu, the Aster is rigorously tested with it surviving concrete drops, freezing to extreme -45 degrees Celsius and baking up to 80 degrees Celsius. If we have to complain, it falls short of having water and dust resistance. Overall it is 193 grams and 11.2mm thick. If you really need to compare, it is slightly lighter than the 196 grams BlackBerry Passport.
What sets Vertu apart from the mainstream “premium” smart phones is its signature concierge service. At a push of a ruby button, you get 24 hours direct access to a team of experts that will help to do anything from booking flights, dining or recommendations.
The Vertu Aster is priced at £4,200 (about RM22,000), which is a lot to pay for a smart phone.
For more information, head over to Vertu Aster page.
