It’s inevitable that in any market, no matter what you’re selling, there will be an overpriced, ‘luxury’ product which falls short of its competition in just about every measurable criteria. Still, with the right brand name behind it and the right gimmicks combined with a limited run and an exorbitant price tag, anything can work.
And so we come to the Meridiis Infinite, the latest ‘luxury’ smartphone from chronographers Tag Heuer. The Swiss brand, traditionally associated with watches and motorsport, has decided it would be a good idea to release a multi-thousand dollar smartphone.
The big draw is that it features the world’s first ‘perpetual power reserve’. This technology means that, in theory, you may never need to charge it. That is if you don’t use it all that much. The way it works is that sandwiched between layers of the LCD display is an invisible photovoltaic component, which enables solar charging. In fact it also works with certain artificial light sources too. This means that the battery can completely sustain itself whilst on standby, with a presumably slower drain during use.
A nifty feature, sure, and one most would undoubtedly like to see more widely implemented. Unfortunately you also get stuck with a 2.4-inch 320 x 240p LCD screen (not touch capacitative – the whole handset uses hard-buttons), 8 GB of internal storage, a 5 megapixel camera and dual-SIM slots.
The 2nd generation Meridiist, released last year, ran on Android FroYo, so it can be presumed that this handset will run on another dated Android OS. Design build is where the Meridiist Infinite shines through, with a titanium, carbon and rubber build. There will be only 1911 handsets made, and with the Meridiist 2 selling for £3,300, it’s easy to imagine the price tag being somewhere around the £5,000 mark. Deal of the century, right?
