Vertu
Ti

The Vertu Ti was the luxury smartphone maker’s first Android smartphone and the first phone it produced having been spun off completely from parent company Nokia. Up to that point, Vertu had been obliged to offer smartphones using the Symbian operating system. When it was originally conceived, it was planned that the Vertu Ti would use the Windows Phone operating system, which would have aligned with Nokia’s smartphone strategy, however once Vertu became fully independent it decided to embrace Google’s Android. The phone had a titanium frame, a "virtually scratchproof" sapphire crystal screen and Bang & Olufsen-tuned audio. It cost 7,900 euros (£7,000) at launch. Despite coming to market in 2013, the Vertu Ti only supported 3G networks, rather than 4G technology which was already available. Vertu’s chief designer Hutch Hutchison acknowledged this at the time, stating that Vertu “was not interested in being a tech pioneer” and would “never be at the bleeding edge of technology”. Instead, he argued that Vertu’s mission was to deliver “relevant technology and craftsmanship” rather than be “a disposable product.” At 180 grams, the Vertu Ti was much heavier than most other phones available at the time. For example, the iPhone 5 weighed 112 grams. The Vertu Ti model in the Mobile Phone Museum collection is a prototype that was an early hardware variant that featured iconography associated with the Windows Phone operating system rather than Android.