Vertu Gets Own Cheap Chinese Knock-Off: Veptu

Those Chinese cloners have fired up their photocopiers again, this time hunting after big, expensive game: the luxury Vertu phones from Nokia. The Veptu clone phones actually look like the real deal, some even coming with 24k gold-plated cases, leather backs and up to 3.3 carats of embedded diamonds—are these real? Who knows. Each comes with a 176 x 220 TFT display, either a 1.3 or 2.0 megapixel camera and some have Bluetooth. They also have GPRS and play MP3s and MP4s, and come in a variety of dual-band and tri-band GSM setups. However similar they may look, they can’t pack the same build quality: they’re available for between $240 and $710. [Veptu via Bornrich via Chipchick]