What it is actually like to live with Vertu's 6,880 dollar luxury AI foldable every day

2:55 PM · July 18, 2026

TechCrunch tested what it is actually like to use Vertu's 6,880 dollar luxury foldable phone day to day, a device built around an always on AI agent marketed specifically to executives willing to pay a steep premium for AI assisted workflows built into their phone. The review found genuine strengths in some of the AI driven workflow features, which can handle tasks like summarizing documents or managing scheduling directly through the device's assistant, but found those advantages substantially undercut by mediocre battery life that struggles to match ordinary flagship phones costing a small fraction of the price. The review also raises security considerations relevant to the executive buyers Vertu is targeting, given how much personal and professional data an always on AI agent integrated at the device level necessarily has access to. Taken together, the review is skeptical that the specific combination of AI capability, luxury hardware, and steep price actually adds up to a compelling value proposition for its intended executive buyers, several of whom could get comparable AI assistant functionality from software alone on far cheaper hardware. The piece is part of a broader pattern this year of luxury and AI branded hardware, from AI branded merchandise to specialty devices, testing whether premium pricing built around an AI pitch translates into real demand once the hardware tradeoffs become apparent in daily use.