I was sitting in meeting with a client, doing my best to pay attention, when something caught my eye. A business associate was wearing a hideous bright yellow watch. The thing looked like something you would give a special needs child. After the meeting I had to say something about the eyesore that was so ugly it distracted me from a multi-million dollar meeting, so I asked what it was. “It’s a Tag Heuer” he responded. He told me his wife picked it out, which stands to reason since she is a vulgar piece of work herself.
This was by no means my first impression of Tag Heuer watches. I admit that I have always found it to be the watch of choice for d-bags. This guy was an especially heavily scented version himself. I think it’s the marketing and relatively low price point for a Swiss watch. Anyhow, they have now made a phone
The Tag Heuer Link smartphone is what it’s called. I see these types of smartphone’s from time to time, and I don’t quite get it to be honest. The prime example is the Vertu. I live near the Wynn, which has a Vertu store in the shopping area, so I decided to check them out. I’m thinking these things would have some amazing technology built within, like a satellite phone, or something. But I get there to check them out, and by the way, the sales guy was a total tool that looked down at me for every question I asked, and these phones are crap. They were slow, bulky and in my opinion just plain fugly. I get the whole 24 hour concierge thing, but I doubt that between OnStar, my personal assistant and AmEx’s Platinum service, I would get anything extra special there.
But I will say that the Tag Heuer does look a bit more promising. First off, the Tag phone is running Android. I’m an iPhone guy, but I can at least acknowledge that Android is a solid OS that provides a lot of great functionality, unlike most Vertu phones. Second, the phone is airtight and waterproof, which is damn near the price in itself.
The screen looks decent with basic Gorilla Glass. But then things turn south. It comes with a 5-megapixel camera, and no LED flash. For the price point (we’ll get to that a little later), there is no reason to not have a flash. And the thing is running Android 2.2 Froyo, which is an antiquated OS, and may, or may not be upgradable.
If it seems like I don’t like the phone, that’s because I don’t. These “luxury” smartphone’s, with gold and jewels, simply don’t make sense. It’s a phone, you’ll be getting another in 6 months. You can go out of your way to buy something like a Case-Mate Titanium iPhone 4 Case, which will make your phone look cool and actually function. It’s like my feelings on most big budget films out of Hollywood. It’s great they have the budget for amazing CG and special effects, but how about breaking free a few bucks for a decent writer. And when it comes to these phones, it’s cool that the case is alligator and gold, but how about putting a decent phone in there? What do you think, is this phone worth the price?
