Those of you who read my comparison of the Vertu Ascent and the Vertu Constellation may recall that in the comments section, Drew and I both mentioned we were interested in the Vertu Ascent Ti. Shortly after that I got an email from him, saying that he hadn’t been able to resist: he bought one! I have just received a report on his first week with the Ti.

photos courtesy of Vertu

Even if you can’t afford one, and at approximately $7,000 not many can, it’s fun to live vicariously through Drew’s purchase… :mrgreen:

Hi Judie,

Thought I’d drop an email and give you the first week…

In the box..  The smallest box I’ve ever seen for a Vertu but that’s a good thing..  Inside the main box are two boxes made out of leatherette with magnetic closure..  Inside is the phone, the key to  open the back of the phone, the battery, a USB cable, and a charger.  There is also a manual, the usual marketing materiel, and a CD for Vertu PC Suite (Remarkably close to Nokia PC Suite but not quite.

There is the usual one port at the bottom, but its not the oddball thing on the earlier Vertus instead its a micro USB!  So the standard microUSB cables work and yes, they do charge the phone in the PC Suite Mode!  Very handy for me travelling.  I am a little worried about using different microusb chargers as the Vertu one won’t charge my Motorolas and yet the Motorola one will charge the Vertu!  So won’t go down that road, too damn expensive if it breaks..

It is about the same height as the Ascent and as wide as the Constellation.  But longer than both.  It is identical in length to a Nokia E51.  So a bit big, but not really..  Definitely notice it in my trouser pocket.  There is a vertical belt case for it, but think its around $400, so am looking for an alternative..  Its made out of titanium with the leather bits and a very nicely lit keypad.  The keypad is not a set of flat keys but instead ridges, which takes some getting used to, but they are distinct and I can text just fine with it.

Internal differences to the phone software include the back up software Fortress which does an OTA backup of contacts to some offsite storage facility they have.  WorldMate is included also and does an admirable job.  Since there is 4g internal storage there is better support for media and a music player..  There is also an equaliser and stereo widening application which make things sound really nice.  I’ve charged up my Nokia BT A2DP headset but haven’t pushed any music too it yet.  I’m assuming perfect sound.   The camera can take advantage of the storage too..  I haven’t even tried it yet. maybe next week.. :-)   PC Suite does a great job of synching too, not nearly as good as MS Push but for a dumb phone its really good!

The sound quality is the usual Vertu quality bar none.  I tried to go back to my Motorola V9 and it was atrocious, lasted about an hour. Its a quad band GSM phone, but the WCDMA is 2100 so more Europe based and other AU carriers than Telstra.  I’m using a Telstra SIM so have less coverage than my Motorola but all the same, it’s fine..  Battery life is okay, wouldn’t rave, looks like the same battery for the Constellation and the Ascent.  I have put about 10 hours of calls on it, and about 200 texts and am definitely charging once a day. Of course I am fiddling with it a lot.. :-)

The exterior buttons are fine,  on the top of the phone is the power button, on the left side right next to the speaker is a button for the camera, an identical button on the right is for Concierge experience.  I have Concierge and Fortress service for one year with the purchase.  I don’t like not having dedicated speaker volume buttons.  The volume can be adjusted only during the call with the center button in the middle.  That gets screwed up when using the BT headset (Volume changes dissapear until I turn off the phone) , yes am using a Motorola headset for now since can’t use the microsusb port for headsets  (I tried!).

The email cient is somewhat improved as well, supports IMAP4 and got my Gmail account going right away..  Not the best as Nokia desn’t do this very well, but it works and on a dumb phone its better than nothing.  Haven’t used the browser yet, not too excited without better 3G coverage.

Next week try to use camera and load up some music and use it as a media device..

Sorry about no pics, but I’m horrible at it…

Drew

Of course I pressed him for photos, and he obliged with some taken with his Motorola Z9.

Similar to the Ascent, the Ascent Ti appears to be a hefty chunk…

And there you have it! :-)

Related posts:

  1. Pas Deux: The Vertu Ascent Ti Experience
  2. The Vertu Ascent and the Vertu Constellation: A Pictorial
  3. Unboxing the Vertu Ascent Ti
  4. Proof that I am Not a Member of Vertu’s Target Audiance
  5. Can You Feel the Drool Tonight: Motorola q9