Heard of Lamborghini cars? Sure you have, but did you know about Tonino Lamborghini? Perhaps not. Named after and run by the son of Ferruccio Lamborghini, the man who started Automobili Lamborghini, it makes luxury goods such as sunglasses, watches, and furniture. It has dabbled in tech too, with several computers to its name, and now it has announced a smartphone.
Called the Antares, it’s exactly what you’d expect a luxury smartphone to be like. The body is made of hand crafted stainless steel and has a leather rear panel, and it comes in several different colors including, naturally, gold. However, while the gold model looks gaudy and unpleasant, the flat black models look considerable more appealing.
The specs, however, don’t. On the front is a 4-inch touchscreen covered in Gorilla Glass, but the resolution is a disappointing 960 x 540 pixels. Inside is an unnamed 1.5GHz quad-core processor with 1GB of RAM, so it’s going to have capable rather than blistering performance. A total of 32GB internal memory is yours to fill, and there’s a MicroSD card slot ready to double this amount.
There is a 13-megapixel camera with accompanying flash on the rear of the phone, and a monster 5-megapixel camera above the screen. It’s joined by a pair of speakers powered by a Yamaha amplifier. Android 4.2 Jelly Bean has been installed, but rather than leave it as Google intended, Tonino Lamborghini has slapped a custom interface over the top. In the early shots of the phone, you can see it has given Android a comprehensive visual makeover.
With all the technical details out of the way, we get down to the price. Tonino Lamborghini hasn’t officially confirmed it to us yet, but CNet UK says the Antares costs £2,500, which converts over to around $4,050. According to the flashy website, the phone can be purchased from the world famous Harrods department store in London, along with other outlets in Russia, China, Germany, Switzerland, France and a few other countries. However, the press release says the phone will be first available in Russia and China during December, with keen buyers in America and the UK having to wait until spring 2014 to buy one.
