French Luxury Handset Puts The "Conspicuous" In "Conspicuous Consumption"

French Company Debuts China-Only Handset, Featuring 925 Sterling Silver Accents And A "Pure Red Synthetic Sapphire" The Chinese luxury portal World Luxury Report last week wrote on the newest China-only high-end REYN handset by the French company Ryan (瑞恩). The luxury handset, which is ostensibly designed to compete with Nokia's Vertu and domestic models like the VEVA "S90 Business Phone" by Qiao Xing. While obviously not to everyone's taste, the "French Romantic Classical Style" handset will certainly appeal to some of China's more conspicuous luxury consumers, for whom flash equals class. From the World Luxury Report post (translation by Jing Daily team): "The new phone by Ryan utilizes a large body size, and a pure, synthetic sapphire mirrored face; the entire keyboard and back section are made of 92.5% pure silver, with the keyboard inlaid with more than 10 karats worth of precious stones, and a pure red synthetic sapphire hand-crafted by a French master craftsman," said a representative from Ryan's Chinese liaison office. It's understood that it synthetic sapphires are extremely difficult to work with, and to inlay such a large sapphire in the REYN cell phone is virtually unheard of. The relief on the back plate uses the same technology used by the French mint, with each handset carved by hand, and every detail refined through a multi-stage grinding process. Classical art and luxury are blended together by the skillful hands of craftsmen. REYN's China liaison office also said that unlike other luxury handsets, every REYN luxury phone is unique to its user, as buyers can customize the back plate with a photo, portrait, logo or even a favorite motto, name, or design. "Ryan's customizing service reflects the unique, distinguished global status of our customers." It's understood that REYN handsets are designed to "get back to basics," with efficiency and design cues guided by businesspeople, with over a week's worth of talk time, a large capacity phone book, 4GB worth of internal memory, VIP privacy encryption to protect phonebook info, text messaging, and phone record encryption. Also, REYN's "anti-harassment blacklist" feature allows users to block unwanted callers to prevent unnecessary disturbance. Luxury brand researchers believe that the exquisite craftsmanship of REYN's handset and its romantic, classic French design -- when combined with such a high-tech product -- give it the style of a work of art handed down from the French aristocracy. It's luxurious without being gaudy. Most importantly, it combines classic and modern, and flawlessly brings together art and luxury. With the spirit imbued in its craftsmanship, it deserves to be desired and collected! Hyperbole aside -- and there's plenty of hyperbole there -- the phone is interesting in that it's so obviously designed with older users in mind. Unlike the VEVA S90, which calls to mind the Palm Pre, the REYN luxury handset is pragmatic function over shiny, metallic form. As we said, it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it may just find some fans among China's middle-aged, money-to-burn business demographic.

French Luxury Handset Puts The "Conspicuous" In "Conspicuous Consumption"

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Published January 28, 2010

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French Luxury Handset Puts The "Conspicuous" In "Conspicuous Consumption"