Vertu has announced its latest smartphone, the Constellation. Vertu, the British manufacturer of luxury smartphones, caters to a different sort of clientele, a discerning smartphone customer who wants the very best quality and craftsmanship, and is prepared to pay for it. 

Handmade in England, the thing that sets Vertu apart from mass market phones is that they are built by hand, making use of a wide range of materials of the highest quality. The Constellation here is pictured finished in leather, but Vertu's experts can fabricate a phone finished with ostrich or snake skin or whatever you like through its bespoke personalisation service.

Aside from premium leather finishes, anodised aluminium frame and that ruby (as in the gemstone) shortcut key to access Vertu's Concierge service, the innards of the Constellation are impressive too. 

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset might be the signature powerhouse of 2016's flagship devices, but there's no lack of power here. There's 4GB of RAM, a massive 128GB of storage, as well as microSD card support. That beats most flagship devices.

The display is 5.5-inches which is a decent size, with a sharp 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution, very much flagship spec. But the real thing that marks this handset aside is the that it's covered with sapphire crystal for durability and scratch resistance. This is something of a hallmark for Vertu, as it's the covering of choice on its other smartphones too. 

There's quick charging for the 3220mAh battery, as well as support for wireless charging, as well as USB Type C, but more interesting is the camera. Vertu specifies that there's a 12-megapixel sensor with large pixels, 1.55µm to be precise, with phase detection autofocus.

This sounds very much like the sort of camera that's performed so well in the Google Pixel phones and there's a 4-megapixel front camera too.

Vertu says that its phones are more than just a physical device, they are the service that comes with it too. The Concierge is available 24 hours a day to cater for your every need, ensuring that you have what you need as your trot around the globe being a super star. 

Most people will never get anywhere near the Vertu Constellation, but we're always happy that someone is enriching the world of smartphones with these extraordinary devices. And the price? If you have to ask, you probably can't afford it.