Splurge. Smart and stunning

The ultimate modern accessory for connoisseurs of luxury is the luxury smartphone. Made with rare metals or exotic materials and ornamented with precious stones, these phones make communication an uber-cool experience.

While there are brands that create only high-end phones, there are others that offer customised upgrades to the latest iPhone or Samsung Galaxy.

Then there are collaborations between high-fashion luxury brands and tech companies.

Probably the brand with the most recall when it comes to luxury phones, Vertu, has been around for more than a decade.

The company has made a name for itself by crafting luxury mobile phones out of rare materials and handcrafting each piece.

Its latest offering is the Aster, being marketed as a “quintessentially English smartphone”.

Titanium, found on spacecrafts, blended with exotic leathers in a range of colours, a ruby key and sapphire crystal for the screen come together to create this ultra-luxe handset.

Add Dolby Digital Plus for the audio, a Hasselblad 13-MP camera, Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 2.3-GHz quad core processor, a promise of global data support and, of course, the 24-hour worldwide concierge service that comes with every Vertu phone, and you have the ultimate accessory money can buy.

Since their first phone made of gold and ebony in 2007, Swiss brand Gresso has endeavoured to make some of the most luxurious smartphones in the world. Their latest is the Regal R1, promising ‘luxury minimalism’.

A limited edition of just 999 pieces, the 8.8-mm thick phone is made from grade 5 titanium worked on for eight hours and manually assembled.

Gorilla Glass 3 on the 5” HD screen and powered by a 1.5 GHz Quadcore processor, this is the go-to phone if understated luxury is your USP. A brand that claims to make not just phones but “precision mobile instruments”, Mobiado is a Canadian company that has been making high-end phones for those who need more than run-of-the-mill devices.

Famed for their Grand Touch EM series that were made of stone or wood hybrid composite, their trademark feature was the sapphire crystal buttons — on the whole, each piece had over 50 carats of sapphire crystal.

Professional 3DC, a special edition of the brand’s classic Professional range, incorporated an interpretation of famous art works. Using the phone as the canvas, famous works such as Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Piet Mondrian’s Composition No 10 and works by Gustav Klimt were translated onto the anodised aluminium, creating limited editions of these artistic phones.

For those who believe that luxury is firmly tied to exclusivity, there are brands that can create one-of-a-kind pieces to their specifications.

Geneva-based Goldvish should be the first on your list, having to their credit the world’s most expensive phone — Le Million.

This is the pinnacle of “luxury personal communication” devices, sold for €1 million in 2006, thanks mostly to the 1,800 diamonds it features.

 Another brand that will cater to your expensive tastes is Amosu, the brainchild of designer Alexander Amosu that promises luxury mobile phones that are customised.

Pick the type of diamonds and gold you want and Amosu will serve up a handcrafted phone made to your specifications in less than a month.

The good news is that you can get your diamonds transferred to a new phone when you decide to change handsets, paying only for the craftsmanship involved.

Other brands made headlines when the iPhone 6 was launched, promising blinged out versions of Apple’s latest.

While Goldgenie offered the 6 or 6 Plus plated in 24-carat gold, platinum or rose gold, New York-based Falcon gave customers the chance to have their precious metal-plated iPhone come with a diamond, sapphire or ruby encrusted on the back. Prices start from a cool $48.5 million for a rare pink diamond.

Luxury brands are not oblivious to the increasing importance of technology in our daily lives, and hence the collaboration with tech brands to create handsets for the wealthy.

From carmakers to watch brands to couture designers, everyone has tried their hand at collaborating on a smartphone.

 One of the oldest collaborations was BlackBerry and Porsche, combining Porsche’s iconic style with BlackBerry’s functionality — and they’re still going strong.

The latest is the P9983 smartphone, made with stainless steel, sapphire glass and a special glass-weave technology; this is for those who can’t do without their physical keyboard.

Tonino Lamborghini released its Antares this year, an Android phone made of leather and stainless steel, priced at £2,500.

 Both Tag Heuer and Ulysse Nardin have attempted smartphones; Tag Heuer recently announcing its Meridiist Infinite, while Ulysse Nardin’s last attempt was the $14,000 Chairman released in 2012.

The Meridiist Infinite is luxurious in every inch, boasting of carbon fibre and titanium in its body and sapphire crystal glass that has solar charging capabilities.

With just 1,911 limited edition pieces out there, this is super exclusive, priced at around $5,000.

 While Dior and Prada tried teaming up with LG to create smartphones with their branding, both Dior’s Reverie and Prada’s KE850 couldn’t keep up with technology’s constant upgrades.

 Clearly luxury, when it comes to the smartphone market, has more to do with bling than branding. So whether you want to stick with a speciality brand or opt for a phone done up with precious stones and metals to your specification, the point is to make sure it’s unique!

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