18-Carat Gold Cell Phone Doesn't Have Internet Or Email (PHOTOS)

It's one of the world's most expensive cell phones--and it can't even download your email.

Then again, you can't exactly expect an 18-carat gold mobile device to be cheap.

Designed by a the Copenhagen firm Aesir, the Æ+Y phone costs a whopping €42,000.00 (about $60,000), and doesn't even boast technological innovations like mobile Internet access or email. Instead its most advanced features include speed dial, a built-in calculator, and bluetooth connectivity.

However, the phone's designer claims to have intentionally excluded some more advanced features. From aesir.com:

In an age when the industry seems to think that phones aren’t for speaking anymore, I wanted to focus on the idea of voice, clarity and simplicity. The central tenet behind the Æ+Y is to literally craft the visual details, craft the functional tactility, and craft the user interface. The Æ+Y champions the idea of craftsmanship in an age that’s obsessed with more and making last year’s products obsolete. Instead we propose better and long-lasting as our starting criteria.

But there's little excuse for its dismal 5 hour battery time, writes Yahoo.com's Mike Wehner. The iPhone, by comparison, can get a whopping 11 hours, while the Motorola Droid averages about 14.

That's the price you pay for luxury.

The 18-carat gold model, which only 25 of will be sold, isn't the only version of the phone being sold. For lesser nobility there's also a stainless steel version that retails at $10,500. You can scroll down to see both versions for yourself.

However, this is far from the world's most expensive cell phone. That honor seems to go to the Goldstriker iPhone 3GS Supreme, which boasts a full body comprised of 22-carat gold, a 7.1 carat diamond for a home button, and costs roughly $3.2 million according to YourDigitalSpace.com.

The 18-Carat Gold Version:

The Stainless Steel Version:

Comments

[Reticent2]

11:23 AM on 09/18/2011

For those who do not know the definitions of hyperbole or prudence.

[O K Ali]

08:25 AM on 09/18/2011

I bet it still drops calls.

[Mikeisadevil]

02:40 AM on 09/18/2011

Yeah, no thanks. Maybe next time

[NewLiberals]

11:19 AM on 09/17/2011

A Phone for the Real House Wives of New Jersey.

[atomV8]

02:20 AM on 09/17/2011

Vertu still rules!!

[Dnietz]

08:42 PM on 09/16/2011

a phone for the not so bright with way too much money and no desire to help the less fortunate

[NaClH2O]

06:46 PM on 09/16/2011

If I was going to pay $60k for a phone, it had better at least have angry birds on it!

[grope and change]

06:35 PM on 09/16/2011

Great get a 60,000$ phone on a 20$ network!

[MFS001]

06:14 PM on 09/16/2011

I saw this advertised the other day. Interestingly, these liminations were not discussed lol.

[wavesofgreen]

06:00 PM on 09/16/2011

Spend $60,000 on a phone vastly less capable than an iphone because it's covered in shiny gold? So let's see, it's expensive, uses obsolete technology and is likely very heavy.What should we call that? Oh, I know! The Dumb Phone.

[gemini68]

05:03 PM on 09/16/2011

So ...in other words its an overpriced piece of useless junk?

[AKansasComment]

03:06 PM on 09/16/2011

Well, at least it's simple enough for me to use.

[AJ in ATL]

11:36 AM on 09/16/2011

It is things like this that so makes me want to do away with the tax cuts for the rich as they are the only ones who would want to spend money for usless toys like this. That $60k would far better be served by building some roads and putting someone to work.

[spkninglsh]

11:17 AM on 09/16/2011

If we hadn't gone to war(s), we could have bought 20,884,357 of those.

[barkingcat]

08:15 AM on 09/16/2011

"Bling Ring! This Phone Is Worth $60,000"

Eh?

No; it costs $60K; that doesn't mean that it's worth $60K.

[Mr Factoid]

01:18 PM on 09/16/2011

"Worth" is a number that is agreed to by sellers and buyers. If someone wants to pay 60 grand for it, it is "worth" that much. A given Picasso is made up of a few bucks of canvas and paint, but it is "worth" millions because that's what a certain number of people agree to pay for it. Lot's of people agree to buy things for huge sums of money that I personally would have no interest in buying. So its "worth" it to them, but not "worth" it to me.