Vertu Ascent Ti

Form Factor
This is – in all ways and forms, without a shadow of a doubt, without being sexist – a man’s phone! I just can’t see it any other way, sorry ladies. The 160g of weight from its Titanium (Hence ‘Ti’ which is the chemical name for the metal) shell gives users a real sense of power.

The phone embodies the beautiful cars that collectively make for its superb finish and design, from the two stereo speakers on the sides to the brilliant keypad and the 2-inch QVGA display with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels and 16.2 million colors that’s encased in genuine sapphire crystal. Scratchproof? You’re darn tootin’!

The speaker area is made of a special material that's apparently used on space shuttles, and the 'V 'logo under the speaker is made from a special material used to strengthen drill bits, or so they say.

This is also the first Vertu to have a 3 megapixel auto-focus camera (located at the rear). In fact, it's the first in the Vertu series to have a camera at all. The camera and the LED flash also have sapphire crystal casings to protect them from getting scratched.

One problem was that the joystick for navigation was just a wee bit uncomfortable to use. It was a little small and embedded into the phone. It could have been a bit tough to move around due to the fact that it was a brand new piece, but that’s not something I can confirm.

I really liked the rear battery panel beneath the top leather portion, which comes in three colors: black, brown and red. It needs to be opened with a key, and voila, it pops up like the hood of a car. Brilliant! The build quality of this phone is one of the best I’ve seen.