Top 10 Most Expensive Mobile Phones in the World

Until recently, the vast majority of mobile phones had been priced between £100 and £300, with only Vertu, a division of Nokia, manufacturing uber-premium phones. With prices starting at around £4,000 Vertu phones are only for the filthy rich, and the super famous.
However, Vertu’s monopoly of the luxury phone market is coming to an end with the launch of several new luxury mobile makers, including Gresso, Mobiado and GoldVish. Other mobile phone manufacturers are also partnering with luxury brands to produce a range of premium mobile phones, such as LG and Prada, D&G and Motorola, and now Tag Heuer and Modelabs. Finally, there are the ridiculous, super-expensive one-offs, made purely for headline grabbing, such as Goldvish’s “Le million”, worth a cool $1,000,000, see below for details!


1. Goldvish “Le million” = $1,000,000 (£540,540)

A PR stunt it may be, and they surely can’t be expecting to sell any, but the Goldvish “Le million” is officially the most expensive mobile phone in the world, according the Guiness Books of Records. There’s even been talk of a $1.3million phone, but this has fewer diamonds than the Goldvish so I can’t see where the extra expense comes from! The “Le million” is a one off, featuring a blinding 120 carats worth of VVS-1 grade diamonds, according to designer Emmanuel Gueit. If $1 million is out of your price range. the Geneva-based Goldvish also offer several other diamond-encrusted 18k gold models in your choice of rose, yellow, or white, starting at a much more reasonable $25,600 (£13,837).



2. Vertu Signature Cobra = $310,000 (£167,567)

Vertu is now taking orders for the Signature Cobra, designed by French jeweler Boucheron, but you had better be quick as only 8 are being made! The Cobra will feature one pear-cut diamond, one round white diamond, two emerald eyes and 439 rubies. Vertu will also be offering a “cheaper” version, ruby free, at $115,000 (£62,162).



3. Sony Ericsson Black Diamond = $300,000 (£162,162)

Apparently the Black Diamond will be available in 2007, not from Sony Ericsson but by a company called VIPN. Initially only 5 unique numered pieces will be available for the unbelievable price of, wait for it… $300,000.
With regards to the specifications, don’t expect anything remarkable for your money. It will have Quad-band with Wi-Fi, an Intel 400Mhz processor running windows mobile 5, and a touch sensitive 2″ screen. It will also include internal memory of 128mb and will come with a 2Gb SD card for external storage, plus a respectable 4 Megapixel camera.
The designer Jaren Goh has used some pretty impressive materials for the build, featuring titane with polycarbonate, mirror-finish cladding and diamonds.



4. Vertu Diamond = $88,000 (£47,567)

The Diamond is Vertu’s premium range of high-end mobile phones. As the name suggests the handsets in the Diamond range are diamond-encrusted handsets made from platinum. Only 200 of the handsets are being produced, the most expensive believed to be worth an estimated £50,000.


5. Motorola V220 Special Edition = £28,000 ($51,800)

Austrian designer Peter Aloisson, has taken a standard Motorola, studded it with 1,200 diamonds and added a keyboard inlaid with 18 carat gold. The outcome is a £28,000 handset, suitable only for footballers and film stars!


6. Gold Edition Nokia 8800 Phone = $2,700 (£1,459)

If you have $2,700 to spare, you can now buy the Nokia 8800 in 24K gold. However, be warned, if you think you’ll be getting a better phone for your extra cash, you wont! The features found on the Gold Edition are the standard 8800 features, which are pretty basic. It includes a 0.5 Mega pixel SVGA camera, 64 MB of internal memory, 64 voice polyphonic rigntones, FM Radio, Mp3 Player, video recording and 180 mins talktime. However, the Gold Edition does includes a special edition box and charging dock!


7. Mobiado Professional EM (wood) = $1,900 (£1,027)

The Mobiado Professional EM, is a wood-clad upgrade of their earlier Nokia-based phone that includes a 1.3 megapixel camera, music player, FM radio, Bluetooth, and according to Mobiado it’s the first production phone with Titanium buttons. Only 200 are being made and each one has its limited number engraved on the back. At $1,900 however, you’re still paying an awfully high premium for a fairly basic phone encased in wood!


8. Bang & Olufsen (Samsung) Serene = $1,250 (£675)

Bang & Olufsen hooked up with Samsung to design the sleek but unconventional Serene. Its not a bad looking phone and it even has a built-in motor to assist you in opening and closing the phone. It’s not very practical however, requiring a special screwdriver to access the battery and the SIM card, and its circular keypad will take some getting used to. Also, for some strange reason they have positioned the camera lens on the side of the device, which will make it difficult to align snapshots via the viewfinder on the display.



9. Lamborghini 8800 Sirocco from Nokia = $To be announced

The Lamborghini Nokia 8800 Sirocco is another special edition, like the previously launch Aston Martin branded Sirocco. It will ultimately be a standard 8800 Sirocco but with the addition of the famous Lamborghini logo engraved on the font and the back, plus ball bearings from the auto company to in the slider phone mechanism. The Lamborghini phone will be a limited edition with only 500 being made. It will also feature Lamborghini graphics as wallpapers, screensavers, ringtones, and even has a short documentary video about the Lamborghini.


10. Gresso Luxury Phone = £expensive

The Russia based Gresso, is a new entry into the luxury phone market. Their aptly name “Gresso Luxury Phone” is made of gold and African Blackwood. Apparently they will be releasing a collection of five models called the Black Aura collection, and the designer is a “well known” Italian designer. Currently there are two versions of the African Blackwood phone, one with pink gold highlights named the Gresso Blackwood Gold Edition, and one made entirely of African Blackwood. In addition to the two African Blackwood phones Gresso also make a phone made entirely of pink gold named the Gresso Gold phone. Initially, the phones will be on sale only in Russia.

Nokia N900 breaks all the records

Did you have a glance on the latest Nokia N900, it breaks all the records and is on the top list. This QWERTY keyboard touchscreen phone has loads of application for windows opening and running concurrently. Nokia mobile phones are always the best and in demand, and so is this one, featuring a strong ARM Cortex-A8 processor and an application memory about 1GB, that’s great!

You can get fast internet connectivity with almost 10/2HSPA and WLAN both. This phone is next generation phone in the progression of Maemo software. It also compliments other software like Symbian. This smartphone suffices a memory of 32 GB storage and can be expanded to almost 48GB with your micro SD card. This gorgeous phone will be on Sale from October with a price tag of $717 (2,580 Dirhams).

Are mobile phones replacing laptops?

In October 1983 Bob Barnett, a former president of Ameritech Mobile Communications, telephoned Alexander Graham Bell's grandson from a Chrysler convertible at an American football field in Chicago. It was the world's first commercial mobile phone call.

We can only guess the topic of conversation but it is a safe bet that neither expected the call to change the lives of 4.1bn phone users worldwide.
Over the past decade mobiles have undergone another revolution. Phones are no longer just devices to make and receive calls and texts, they are also for checking emails, Facebook and Twitter as well as browsing the internet.
News last week that Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, is to launch a new "super-smartphone" and start making mini-laptops, is the dawn of a third revolution, which could lead to a blurring of the lines between phones and laptops.
Smartphones such as Apple's iPhone and Research in Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry, are so powerful, users are finding themselves using their phones to check emails and the latest football scores even when their laptop is lying to hand.
"Sometimes it's just too much effort to lift the lid of your laptop, when you're phone is almost as quick at browsing the web," says Mike Brook, editor of T3 technology magazine.
Apple, which appears to have almost psychic powers in predicting the next big technology trends, took a gamble two years ago by branching out into mobile phones following the phenomenal success of its iPod music player.
So far the company has sold 21.2m iPhones worldwide, including more than 1m in the UK.
Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, highlighted the success of the iPhone in helping the company achieve record profits of $1.23bn (£747m) for the three months to the end of June - Apple's most successful non-Christmas quarter in its 32-year history.
Following Apple's success, a string of other computer companies, including Dell, are entering the smart-phone market.
Dell's founder, Michael Dell, had previously ruled out ever entering the mobile phone business because Nokia's 40pc market share would be too hard to crack.
But earlier this month he confirmed long-running rumours that Dell plans to launch a smartphone running on Google's Android operating system.
The lure of big profits achieved by Apple and RIM has also attracted some unexpected technology brands into the smartphone mix.
Garmin, the satellite navigation company, launched a touchscreen mobile, which specialises in navigation, in the Far East this summer. The device is expected in Europe next year.
Despite other new challengers, including Palm's Pre and Taiwan's HTC Hero, the iPhone remains "the phone to beat" and all the traditional mobile phone makers – Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, LG and Samsung – are desperately struggling to compete.
Smartphone sales grew by 27pc in the second quarter according to analysts at Gartner, the research house, and are expected to account for up to 70pc of all phones sold in Europe by 2012.
At the same time sales of middle-of-the-range phones are expected to drop for only the second time since the industry began. So, the established players need to act fast to bring out serious challengers or risk losing the market to the upstarts with PC-pedigree.
Nokia had been caught sleeping at the wheel without any handset close to the iPhone and its hastily-produced N97 has been described as a "dud" by experts. The Finnish company has seen its market share drop from 39.5pc to 36.8pc.
But Nokia is fighting back. Last week it revealed its latest attempt to regain ground lost to Apple's iPhone. Nokia said its touchscreen N900 will hit the shops in October priced at about £400, although it could be much cheaper depending on contract terms.
Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's executive vice president of markets, said: "What we have is something that is fusing the power of the computer, the internet and the mobile phone, and it is great to see that it is evolving in exciting ways."
Nokia's chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo denies that Apple is dictating the company's strategy. He said Nokia is switching the business model away from mobile phone sales towards services such as mobile banking, games and music.
"It's not simply fighting against your competitors like Apple, it's claiming new ground. It's claiming no-man's land," he said.
However, the company is pushing into the backyard of its PC-making rivals by launching its own mini-laptops into the fiercely competitive but fast-growing netbook market.
Nokia said it will provide more information on its Booklet 3G – which is just 10 inches wide, less than one inch thick and weighs only 1.25kg – at its glitzy Nokia World conference in Stuttgart this week.
The company, which used to make everything from Wellington boots to gas masks, pulled out of the PC market in 1991 after it lost ground to larger rivals.
"This is Nokia fighting back a little against Apple and Google's invasion into its territory," said Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner. "It's a clever move by Nokia as it can use its established route to market through mobile phone operators and shops."
She said the mini-laptop would probably be sold as a second contract alongside a Nokia mobile phone, a plan which would be popular with mobile phone operators looking to expand customers' data use.
"These moves by Nokia just highlight how the mobile and laptop markets are converging," Mr Brook said. "No one ever thought the marriage of the phone and laptop would come together, but it looks like they just might."

Source: Telegraph