Adding once again to its line of ultra-high end luxury feature phones, Mobiado announced Tuesday the addition of the Classic 712 Mokume Gane to its Classic portfolio. Mokume Gane translates from Japanese as “wood grain metal,” and the 712MG is true to its name. The case materials undergo a unique forging process that involves hand-twisting different metals together to create the unique mokume gane look. Beneath its copper, nickel silver, brass and sapphire crystal exterior lie quad-band GSM and tri-band WCDMA radios, a 2.2-inch QVGA display panel, a 5-megapixel camera and integrated GPS. In addition to the Classic 712MG, a special Classic 712MG Angular Momentum Edition is also available along with a matching watch built by Swiss watch maker Angular Momentum. The Mobiado Classic 712 Mokume Gane is available immediately for $4,180 and the Classic 712MG Angular Momentum Edition is already available as well for $8,800. Hit the break for the full press release and additional images.

JAPANESE TRADITION REBORN WITH THE MOBIADO CLASSIC 712 MOKUME GANE

Vancouver, Canada – November 23rd, 2010:  Mobiado is proud to present the Japanese spirit of Mokume Gane with the Classic 712MG.

Mokume Gane ( 木目金 ) translates from Japanese as “wood grain metal”.  This process of bonding mixed-metal was invented by Denbei Shoami (1651-1728) in 17th-century Feudal Japan and was used for sword fittings when the decline of the katana industry forced artisans to create purely decorative items.

The 712MG represents a milestone as the first phone to be created from Mokume Gane.  Noble, fearless, timeless.

The Externals: Mokume Gane – A symbol of Japanese spirit.

The Mokume Gane is created by putting copper, nickel silver, and brass through a thorough 7 step cleaning process, which is the key to preventing material delimitation.  The layers are then stacked and wrap in steel foil.  Once in the air tight environment, the billet is fused through heat and pressure for 2 to 3 hours in an electric kiln.  It is then forged, hand twisted, and forged again for create the final material of Mokume Gane.

The hand twisted Mokume Gane frame is then precision CNC machined and hand polished.   No two phones are alike.  The top of the phone is precision engraved with the designers signature and inlayed with a white or black diamond.  The iconic Mobiado logo is CNC machine engraved into the body to bestow a final touch of elegance.

Large sapphire crystal plates, hand painted with 24 Karat gold lettering and symbols are precision inset into the Mokume Gane body.  The buttons of the Classic 712MG are crafted from an array of sapphire crystal buttons (hand painted with 24 Karat yellow gold, 18 Karat rose gold, and silver) giving the phone a total of 204.5 Carats of sapphire crystal.  The phone is then assembled using 24 Karat gold plated stainless steel screws.

The battery cover is made entirely from one piece of sapphire crystal and incorporates a unique hidden sliding battery cover mechanism (patent pending).  With each piece of Mokume Gane being twisted by hand, every 712MG phone is truly one of a kind.

The Internals: Merging state-of-the-art technologies with the tradition of phone-making innovation.

The 712MG is unlocked and will work with any GSM network operator.  The phone is quad-band GSM (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) and has triple band WCDMA Band I, II and VIII (2100/1900/900) coverage on up to five continents.  It is equipped with a large 2.2” QVGA display, 5 megapixel camera and video camera with flash, integrated GPS, web browser, email support, and a music player that supports AMR, MID, MP3, MP4, M4A, .WMA and AAC files.

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What, you didn’t see this coming? While the global economy is suffering, Vertu keeps on launching their high-end mobile phones to the world’s richest customers. While they used to be featureless handsets, they’ve now become current, and what used to be expensive, is still… expensive. Let’s look at the brand new Vertu Signature we just got in our office. It’s the stainless steel model, and is made of sapphire crystal, fine leather, and of course, stainless steel. Its got 3G (only the 850MHz and 2100MHz WCDMA band), Wi-Fi, and an OLED display. Definitely some things that keep these devices in play, tech-wise at least. Since Vertu is an off-shoot of Nokia, all up-to-date Vertus run a customized version of the Series 40 OS (we have heard Vertu is working on a PDA, but nothing has materialized yet). Still, at a retail price of $12,500, who’s going to buy this? The old answer used to be someone who can appreciate the finer things in life, just as someone would spend $80,000 on a watch, they’d have no problem dropping $12,000 on a phone. Right? Well, times have changed. This isn’t 2004 when people were rockin’ RAZRs as the new hot thing and had a pretty limited selection of smartphones. If you think about it the world is pretty topsy turvy. There’s BlackBerrys with cameras, Apple makes a cell phone, HTC makes Android devices, and Sony Ericsson makes a Windows Mobile phone. So where is the market for this Signature? We’d say its smaller than ever thanks to the popularity of smartphones that actually work and then obviously the economy. There’s no doubt this is Vertu’s finest model, it sure as heck feels like it. We’re just not so sure people are that interested in this day and age. Unless we’re talking about that Vertu Ascent Ti Ferrari Nero, then well, that’s another story…

Click on over to our Vertu Signature S Design hands on gallery!