Vertu Aster luxury smartphone hits the UK

After being mentioned in the rumors for a few times in the last months, a new luxury smartphone from Vertu is finally available for purchase. Vertu Aster is a "Quintessentially English" handset and each unit is manufactured manually using leather, wood, and ostrich skin.

The luxury status of this handset can be spotted even in the specs and features list - Vertu Aster's display is protected by a sapphire crystal screen cover with a 5.1-inch size, made of a single 117-carat piece of sapphire. The processor under its hood is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, coupled with 64 GB of internal storage. The 4.7-inch Full HD smartphone also features a 13 MP Hasselblad-certified camera with dual LED flash, WiFi, 4G LTE, GPS, as well asa 2,250 mAh battery. Additional highlights include Dolby Digital Plus technology , a Skype-certified 2.1 MP front camera, and QI wireless charging.

Vertu Aster comes loaded with Android 4.4 KitKat and entered UK stores today starting at roughly $6,800 USD. Global availability is expected to follow soon.