Porsche Design has made an exclusive one-of-a-kind titanium and carbon fibre version of its BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 smartphone for Harrods, and Pocket-lint convinced the Knightsbridge store to let us have a closer look.

Titanium is a material that Todd Wood, head of design at Research In Motion, has previously told us that he wanted to work with and here the titanium gives the phone a more shiny appearance to the matt metal finish of the standard, if you can call it that, BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 smartphone.

But it's not just about making the BlackBerry phone shiny. The QWERTY keyboards is now plastic rather than metal and that introduces a lot more black to the front of the phone than in the previous outing.

Around the back and Porsche Design has introduced a carbon fibre back cover that encases the entire rear of the handset. While it looks amazing, we can't help worry that it is likely to reduce the ability to make and receive calls to the phone.

That's because the carbon part of the material actually causes a lot of problems for the antenna and does a really good job of blocking incoming radio signals.

We know this useless fact because RIM has previously told Pocket-lint that the carbon fibre back plate found on the standard Bold 9900 isn't carbon fibre at all, but a material that - for all intents and purposes - is carbon fibre but without the carbon element. Phones just don't like carbon.

Still you shouldn't let that small detail put you off.

Due to be sold at auction with the money going to charity, the limited-edition phone hasn't yet had a price put on it by Harrods.

Oh and if you are wondering why the black glove? The sales rep from Harrods was so nervous that not only would he only hold the phone above carpet in case he dropped it, but he insisted on wearing the fetching black glove so as not to get it greasy. Bless. 

BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 review

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