This luxury phone brand’s new foldable makes the Galaxy Z TriFold look cheap

• Premium phone brand, Vertu, has launched its first book-style foldable.
• The foldable bets big on AI, with an agent that can control dozens of apps, including popular ones from Google.
• The phone starts at an eye-watering $6,880 and goes up $46,800.

Vertu, the luxury phone brand that made headlines in the early 2000s for its shockingly expensive phones studded with precious stones and featuring exotic leather backs, hasn’t been very active lately. It hasn’t truly called it quits, despite declaring bankruptcy, but it hasn’t quite transitioned to smartphones as easily. In the last decade or so, Vertu’s portfolio has been bejeweled by only a handful of phones, including one made for Web3. Its most recent launch was a luxury flip phone rocking a Snapdragon 8 Elite, the same iconic leather back, and an eye-watering $7,300 price. Now, it’s launching another foldable, but in a different form factor.

Vertu’s latest launch, the AlphaFold, is the company’s first book-style foldable, targeting “executives and high-value users.” The brand is banking heavily on its AI, claiming that the phone comes with a specialized AI agent named after Hermes, the famous luxury clothing and accessories brand. With the Hermes agent, Vertu is gunning for the same qualities as Gemini Intelligence and says that it learns and remembers your preferences and manages your calendar, messages, travel, and business-related tasks.