$15,000 smartphone coming in May puts tech before bling

Sirin Labs, a newcomer on the smartphone scene, is about to give the super wealthy a new device on which they can spend their pocket change. The phone is set to cost around $15,000, which until now has been restricted to hardware produced by Vertu, and over-the-top blingmeisters such as Goldgenie. 

Sirin Labs, a newcomer on the smartphone scene, is about to give the super wealthy a new device on which they can spend their pocket change. The phone is set to cost around $15,000, which until now has been restricted to hardware produced by Vertu, and over-the-top blingmeisters such as Goldgenie.

Except the unnamed phone isn’t going down the stupidly lavish Goldgenie route, or the handmade exclusivity of Vertu. Instead, it wants to offer the best of everything, from cameras to speakers, and finishing off with high levels of security. Co-founder Moshe Hogeg, pictured above on the left with fellow founder Tal Cohen, said Sirin Labs will, “downgrade the bling,” and is, “not about luxury, we are about technology.” For those who dismiss other luxury phones as needless trinkets, this may be what they’ve been waiting for.

Little is known about the hardware at the moment, but Sirin Labs seems to have plenty of power, money, and talent behind it. The company has $72 million in the bank following the closure of its seed funding round, raised from investors around the world. Its international team of employees has been built over the past two years, and come from major brands like Sony and McLaren, while it has been engaging with security experts from Celebrate to ensure the phone stays secure.

The pedigree sounds enticing, but the specification is a mystery, although the phone will run Android as the operating system. Whether it ends up being an almost standard, Nexus-style installation with Vertu-style apps, or a tweaked version with security in mind — perhaps like the Blackphone — remains to be seen. For the projected price, we’d expect some high-end materials to be used in its construction, although the phone will be put together by robots on a factory line, rather than by individual craftsmen.

Sirin Labs is confident there’s a market for such expensive smartphones, and predicts there are 60 million people out there who would be interested in such a device. Interestingly Vertu, a company that has been operating since the late 90s, agrees there is demand. New CEO Gordon Watson told Digital Trends:

“There are increasing opportunities in this sector for both existing players as well as new entrants, as long as they are coming to market with the right product at the right price.” He added that, “There is probably more interest in Vertu now than ever before, not least because of the growing global appetite for luxury tech and our recent product portfolio.”

The exact date for Sirin Labs phone launch hasn’t been confirmed outside of sometime in May. We’ll keep you updated here.