Luxury phone maker Vertu "usher in touchscreens"

It's neat to get a look inside a rare beast–the small cellphone manufacturer!–but I can't help but giggle when merciful coverage of blingphone specialist Vertu turns up. The value is entirely about about materials: the handsets themselves are absolute junk. But The Verge got an office tour, so it is polite.

Check out this paragraph from Vlad Savov's fascinating and well-written look at Nokia's recently-trimmed fat.

It's an unapologetic luxury item, one which turns its Nokia Series 40 software and anachronistic number pad into an asset, demonstrating through them that the owner of the phone doesn't need modern technology, he most likely has people doing those jobs for him. And yet, Vertu is also looking to the future with the introduction of two Android phones this year that usher in touchscreens, the Google Play Store, and many other modern smartphone amenities.

Usher indeed!

It should suffice to say that if it were true that technology was irrelevant to the luxury phone market, they wouldn't be trying to make Android smartphones. Bottom line: it doesn't matter what value Vertu tries to embody, because it can be surpassed simply by putting an iPhone–or a Lumia–inside a fancy case that embodies that value better.

What is it, an inch thick? Come on.

Previously: Behold! Vertu's $200 USB cable