Motorola redefines elegance with the AURA
Motorola announced on Tuesday its new luxury phone, the Motorola AURA. The AURA features the world’s first circular display with 16 million colors and 300 dpi resolution and is the first phone to really capture that “cyclops” look. You wont need an invisible shield for this phone as the display is covered with Grade 1, 62-carat sapphire crystal lens, one of the most scratch-resistant materials on earth, and the housing is crafted from stainless steel that is electro- and hand polished, chemically etched, and PVD coated. No wonder why it takes two weeks to create the front of the phone. The handset has an assisted-opening blade that is comprised of a Swiss-made, custom-engineered rotating mechanism with 130 precision ball bearings and custom Tungsten Carbide Coated Gears. To separate the phone from the full, we should tell you that the AURA sports quad-Band GSM 850/900/1800/1900, EDGE, a 2 MP Fixed Focus camera, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR with A2DP, text and email messaging, multimedia playback, and a yet to be named open source browser. Smooth and sexy with an hint of class and an interesting design is the new Motorola AURA. If you fancy one for yourself, you wont have to wait very long as it is expected to launch worldwide at the beginning of Q4 2008. Start cashing in your piggy banks now as this won’t be your father’s cheap flip phone, ringing up the registers at $1,999.
Tags: 16 million color, 300dpi, Aura, cicular display, handset, luxury, Motorola, stainless steel, swiss-made
I suppose it’s really cool that they used the V70’s design as an inspiration, but the keypad could definitely be more inspired.
Also, I wonder how much this baby’s gonna cost…
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“….as this wont be your father’s cheap flip phone, ringing up the registers at $1,999″
WTF?
I can’t imagine this being ANYONE’S flip phone, and not just beacuse of the price! This mutha-luva is HIDEOUS! And y’alls had the nerve to call the G1 dated and ugly….
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2 grand? even if i was rich id still go for the iphone, g1, or that new blackberry. they actually do cool stuff xp
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would’ve been great with a bigger display and a full qwerty under the swivel. That would be great. The specs aren’t too bad though, sans the camera.
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i think web browsing might be a bit.. awkward on that screen.
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Yeah, they could have gotten a one-up on Vertu with a QWERTY communication device… but no. Motorola decides to release a phone with tech specs of 2005 when even Vertu has got an OLED display and dual-band 3G pumpin’.
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… this might also be the last one with circular display.
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2k? Seriously? My first car cost less than that phone…
Oooohh, maybe it’s like one of those deals where you buy a car and get a free phone, only backwards… buy a $2,000 phone and receive a free car!
hehe:)
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looks like something from “star wars”
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I think that this is a nice looking phone…. If it was $150
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Hahahahaha, this phone makes me lauph, no way in hell is anyone going to buy it for 2000… maybe 200 but come moto get real, rather stick with the storm or iphone any day
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Big deal! I had a Sony S710 “blade” phone so this isn’t that “spectacular” except for the price!
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back to the future?
Hello, Hello! Mr Spock?
I have the latest 1959 transporter, can we used it in the next rerun in 2008?
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looks like shit man
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I think this is a good move by Motorola, go after some of that high end, really high margin business. There is a nice market there.
That watch you have is really nice for $10 isn’t it? Wonder why anyone would buy a watch that does much less but cost $5,000? Because they have money to spend and don’t care about price. Motorola could use some of that “free” money.
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Apparently, someone didn’t get the memo that the oFone and the Pomegranate are supposed to be jokes.
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@info -
Yes, there are lots of people who will spend way too much money on a phone, and those phones are Vertus. Check them out, this goofy Motorola pales in comparison to them - yes, I know, the Vertus are significantly more loot than this, but you are talking about people with cash to spend and don’t care about price. It is a no-brainer to forsee the failure of this handset. Not to mention that the big M couldn’t get their shit together way back in the StarTac days, and that was not a difficult handset to build (actually, yes, I did work there at the time of that phone’s launch); everything about this joke of a phone says tough to build, and I just don’t see it happening. Nice try, Motorola, but the market is in the middle…..
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OMG!!! They’ve resurrected my old V70. It was cool back in 2002, but this is not so great on the design level. I couldn’t see paying $2k for this.
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Finally….
Moto has some signature model which can stand side by side with Nokia Vertu, but only better looking.
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@ mpG4life
The Vertus offers a different sort of appeal, the services that come with it for one thing. The Aura is strictly a fashion phone, when you see it you know it is expensive and differnet. The Vertus doesn’t cause that.
And are you really comparing how Motorola does making a phone today to making the StarTac? Seriously? Okay. Check out a Motorola phone today, they are well built, Motorola’s issues haven’t been mechanical design or manufacturing. For all the faults with the RAZR2, it is well built (with a hinge that can handle 200lbs of force).
And your comment that the market is in the middle misses the point as well. The volume is in the middle to low end, the margins and name value is in the high end. With phones like this a company is trying to make some nice margins and improve the brand image. You don’t create a brand image with mid-tier phones.
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I agree with info,
Besides the fact that this is clearly a high-end fashion phone (unlike the high-end business design of the vertu’s), most people that spend above their means, want something flashy that shows how much money they spent (i.e. many of the people who spend more on their car than their house).
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