Basic Features

A key feature among Vertu phones are the custom inner workings. Rather than fusing them together (as most phones do), the Vertu Signature's parts are modular. So as technology advances, consumers' phones can as well. With the fast pace of technology, consumers can rest assured it won't grow obsolete. Vertu offers free hardware and software upgrades to existing consumers for life, as was the case with color screens, antennas, and microphones in the past.

Built on a tri-band GSM (900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz) technology, the Signature 2006 will work on GSM networks worldwide. Measuring 122 x 42 x 16 mm it is much longer than standard phones, albeit just as wide and thick. However at 173 g, the Signature is extremely heavy. A byproduct of the metals (rather than plastic), it has some weight behind it.

Rating the Signature's 950 mAh Li-Ion battery (BLZ-2) at 9.0 hours and 300 hours (12.5 days) of talk and standby times respectively, these are under optimal conditions. Manufacturers and carriers often list talk and standby times with disclaimers about variable performance, and refer to the times they publish as maximum times. Actual talk and standby times are lower.

The Signature supports a variety of languages including English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Russian, Arabic, and Turkish. Multi-language predictive text is supported as well.

Up to now we have been using "Signature" to denote the new "Signature 2006." However, it should be noted there are actually two versions of the phone, the original (Signature) released in 2002, and the new version (Signature 2006) this year.

Aside from small cosmetic differences (such as an internal antenna instead of a retractable one), the 2006 adds improved features such as tri-band capabilities (rather than dual-band), improved color screen, longer battery life (9 and 300 hours of talk and standby times rather than 6 and 200), and GPRS support.

Screen

Underneath the scratch-proof sapphire crystal contains a high-quality 12-bit color TFD (Thin Film Diode) display. However, compared to other devices on the market, the Signature's display is not state-of-the-art. Many devices released nowadays feature up to 262K-colors, a significant improvement over the Signature's mediocre 4K-color display.

Regardless, using Crystal Fine technology (developed by Epson), the Signature's 116 x 148 px (34.7 x 46.8 mm) LCD applies transflective liquid crystal technology to offer unsurpassed clarity under a wide variety of viewing conditions; from the black of night to sunny outdoor afternoons.

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