Tonino Lamborghini is really good at making expensive things. For decades, that’s mostly meant cars — beautiful, beautiful cars that 99 per cent of people will never even get the chance to sit in, let alone drive. But where these overly luxurious autos can inspire car envy, the Lambo smartphone, called the 88 Tauri, really doesn’t.
So, I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting when I picked up this $US6000 handset. For the price of this one smartphone, I could buy 17 Nexus 5s, my current daily driver. In almost every way, I love my Nexus more. Like a Nexus 5, it also has a 5-inch 1080p screen but with just massive, massive bezels. You know, for the gold and the bling and the bigness. It also has a Snapdragon 801 processor, which is nice, but so does a $US300 OnePlus One.
The smartphone itself is swaddled in Lambo car leather, matching similar colour palettes to the company’s pricy road machines, and the Android 4.4.4 OS is basically stock, except for some kind of hideous skinning on certain app icons.
Everything about this smartphone just screams eccentricity. A literal use case they pitched to me was something all the lines of “if you’re flying in your private jet, you may not have charging port nearby.” Man, I hate it when that happens.
But I’ll give Tonino Lamborghini one thing — they know their clientele, a ridiculous phone for the ridiculously rich. The phone does feel solid and well-made, but Android KitKat is Android KitKat, now matter what you wrap around it.
Is it worth it? Well, you already know the answer. I’ll stick with my one… or 17 Nexuses thanks.