Android By Lee Mathews Dec. 23, 2013 3:13 pm
Not a fan of fragile polycarbonate or glass-backed phones? You’ll lovr the new Gresso Radical R1. It’s a solid slab of titanium that runs Android 4.1.2 and sports an $1800 price tag.
Gresso isn’t a household name, and that’s probably because most consumers aren’t too interested in dropping nearly $2000 on a smartphone with mid-range specs. Like Vertu, Gresso’s focus is on ultra-premium finishes and not a phone’s internals or software.
The chunky, industrial Radical R1 is completely assembled by hand, down to the smallest detail. That might be the shiny Gresso emblem, which the company says requires four hours of polishing.
While that titanium casing is top-notch, the middling hardware it encloses is anything but. It starts up front with the 4.5-inch qHD display. At a time when Samsung, LG, Sony, and just about everyone else are rolling 1080p panels in their phones, Gresso is content shipping a 960×540 one in the R1.
Under the hood there’s a quad-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, and 36GB of internal storage. The rear-facing camera features an 8MP sensor. Although megapixels aren’t everything when it comes to great looking pictures, it’s hard to believe that Gresso is using a truly top-notch sensor when the other hardware is so uninspiring.
Also uninspiring: the 1800mAh battery. That’s less than what Motorola ships in the bargain-priced Moto G, and it’s only slightly bigger than what Samsung used in the Galaxy Nexus back in 2011.
But hey, shipping’s free… and Gresso does offer a snazzy crocodile leather holster for the Radical R1 that will only set you back another $200.
You can also rest assured that you won’t be passing dozens of people in the mall that are using the same phone as you. Gresso’s only making 999.
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Gresso isn’t a household name, and that’s probably because most consumers aren’t too interested in dropping nearly $2000 on a smartphone with mid-range specs. Like Vertu, Gresso’s focus is on ultra-premium finishes and not a phone’s internals or software.
The chunky, industrial Radical R1 is completely assembled by hand, down to the smallest detail. That might be the shiny Gresso emblem, which the company says requires four hours of polishing.
While that titanium casing is top-notch, the middling hardware it encloses is anything but. It starts up front with the 4.5-inch qHD display. At a time when Samsung, LG, Sony, and just about everyone else are rolling 1080p panels in their phones, Gresso is content shipping a 960×540 one in the R1.
Under the hood there’s a quad-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, and 36GB of internal storage. The rear-facing camera features an 8MP sensor. Although megapixels aren’t everything when it comes to great looking pictures, it’s hard to believe that Gresso is using a truly top-notch sensor when the other hardware is so uninspiring.
Also uninspiring: the 1800mAh battery. That’s less than what Motorola ships in the bargain-priced Moto G, and it’s only slightly bigger than what Samsung used in the Galaxy Nexus back in 2011.
But hey, shipping’s free… and Gresso does offer a snazzy crocodile leather holster for the Radical R1 that will only set you back another $200.
You can also rest assured that you won’t be passing dozens of people in the mall that are using the same phone as you. Gresso’s only making 999.
More...
