Gadget of the week: Link and you'll miss it

What is it?

The LINK is the first Swiss luxury touch-screen smartphone, operating on Android.

Haven't we had a few luxury phones before?

Yes but they have focused more on the luxury and less on the "smart" in smartphone. The LINK features a good set of internals to match a pretty exterior.

What is the ‘luxury' here?

The LINK features components from the watch engineered similar to a TAG Heuer watch. It is shockproof and reinforced with screws on the handset. More importantly, it features materials such as diamonds, rose gold and premium-grade stainless steel besides coverings of calf skin, alligator and lizard.

The LINK is built to make a statement when placed on the table; a bold one at that.

And what about the "good set of internals"?

The phone is powered by a 1GHz processor so it's no weak horse. It also features a 3.5-inch screen with a higher resolution display of 800x480. It also has a five-megapixel camera for those lovely photos and videos. And finally, all this is brought to life by the Android (2.2) operating system — making it one of, if not the first luxury phones to feature an advanced operating system. The previous ones have been the pocket equivalent of a trophy wife.

What is it going to set me back?

Well, it is a luxury smartphone so it isn't going to come cheap. Depending on what model you pick, you can expect to pay anywhere between Dh23,700 all the way up to Dh95,500.