AI has become the smartphone industry's latest battleground, with manufacturers racing to add AI-powered features to attract mainstream consumers. Vertu is taking a different path. The U.K.-founded luxury phone maker, known for hand-finished devices often costing tens of thousands of dollars, sells status instead of specs. Its Alphafold, a foldable phone, targets affluent buyers, particularly chief executives, pairing luxury materials with an AI agent designed to automate parts of an executive's working day.
The core of its pitch is Hermes Agent, a pre-installed AI assistant built on the open source Hermes project. Unlike typical smartphone assistants like Google Assistant or Siri, Hermes is designed to execute multi-step workflows, such as analyzing files, automating tasks across apps, and remembering conversations. It can also hand off complex requests to a human concierge. The hardware starts at $6,880, making it one of the most expensive foldables on the market.
Physically, the Alphafold looks and feels like a luxury device. The review unit featured genuine calfskin leather with titanium accents, setting it apart from mainstream foldables that rely on glass or synthetic finishes. The packaging is equally lavish, resembling a jewelry box rather than a smartphone box, with neatly arranged drawers for accessories like a leather sleeve and charging cables. However, the phone weighs 264 grams, noticeably heavier than Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 7 at 215 grams, making prolonged use tiring.
Hardware: A Rebadged ZTE Nubia Fold
Beneath the premium materials, the Alphafold reveals a less glamorous origin. During testing, striking similarities emerged between the device and the $1,100 ZTE Nubia Fold. The hinge design, dimensions, and placement of speakers, microphones, and fingerprint reader were nearly identical. System information even showed ZTE identifiers in the software. When asked, Vertu confirmed a supply-chain partnership with ZTE/Nubia for hardware platform, component integration, and production engineering. Vertu is responsible only for luxury materials, software, quality control, and after-sales service. This mirrors a 2023 Wired review of the MetaVertu, which also appeared to be based on a ZTE Nubia handset.
Focusing solely on the hardware misses the point, however. Vertu’s real bet is on whether executives will pay for an AI agent that helps them get through the working day more efficiently. To test this, the Alphafold was used as a primary smartphone for several days, replacing routine prompts with real executive-style workflows: analyzing spreadsheets and contracts, planning business trips, managing schedules, and automating actions across multiple apps. The experience was compared with Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 running Google’s Gemini.
AI Agent Performance: Mixed Results
Early on, software issues plagued the test. Builds struggled to upload files, analyze images, and connect to the concierge service. After reporting these issues, Vertu rolled out server-side fixes that restored missing functionality, but the inconsistency is concerning for a device at this price point.
Hermes Agent impressed when analyzing local files and spreadsheets, an area where Gemini still relied on manually uploaded documents. It was also more willing to automate actions across apps and complete multi-step workflows. However, that autonomy came with trade-offs. In one test, the agent was asked to message a contact that the user was running 20 minutes late, navigate to the airport, switch to Do Not Disturb, and set a reminder to call the hotel in 15 minutes. Hermes sent the message, enabled Do Not Disturb, and opened Google Maps with directions, but did not start navigation and set the reminder for 9:08 p.m. despite the request being made at 2:32 a.m. Gemini, by contrast, asked follow-up questions about which airport and which calendar app, then created the reminder for the correct time. Hermes was more autonomous but less accurate.
Another test involved planning a business trip from Mumbai to Pune. Hermes responded that no direct morning flights were available and offered a 'Contact Butler' button to escalate to the concierge. It also created a calendar entry for the wrong dates (7 July instead of 18-19 July). Gemini, facing the same issue, suggested alternative travel options rather than handing off the task.
Document analysis also revealed flaws. Hermes analyzed a financial spreadsheet and correctly summarized Q2 figures during initial testing, but days later it no longer recognized the previously shared document, requiring re-upload. Gemini retained context and answered follow-up questions without needing the file again. The specialist agents—focused on legal and investment advice—were useful but clearly AI-generated and should not be relied upon for high-stakes decisions without independent verification. The concierge option underscores that human expertise still matters.
Security and Other Features
Security is a key selling point for the Alphafold's target audience. Vertu says conversations are encrypted and not used to train public AI models. Users can choose where data is processed, with enterprise deployments supporting private infrastructure. The phone includes a dedicated 'A5' security chip for hardware-level protection of sensitive data, encrypted communications, and digital credentials. These claims could not be independently verified but are central to the pitch.
Away from AI, the Alphafold behaves like a modern flagship foldable. Battery life comfortably exceeds a day, though the absence of wireless charging is a surprising omission at this price. The camera includes a document-scanning mode under 'Smart AI' that enhances paperwork, but Samsung offers a comparable experience. The Alphafold lacks the sleekness and one-handed usability of the Galaxy Z Fold 7, though its curved frame makes unfolding easier.
Vertu also positions the Alphafold as a business platform with an integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, but testing was limited to a demonstration environment, making it hard to assess real-world performance.
The Alphafold is an ambitious attempt to build an AI-first luxury smartphone, but the execution falls short of its price tag. Despite premium materials and exclusive services, the core hardware offers little that cannot be found in significantly less expensive foldables. Hermes Agent remains an evolving platform rather than a compelling reason to spend thousands more. Ultimately, Vertu is asking buyers to pay a substantial premium for branding, craftsmanship, and an ecosystem of AI and concierge services built on top of an established smartphone platform. Based on testing, that premium is difficult to justify, particularly when Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 offers a more mature foldable experience with comparable day-to-day functionality at a fraction of the price. With Samsung’s next-generation Galaxy Z Fold 8 expected very soon, the Alphafold’s value proposition becomes even harder to defend.
Source:TechCrunch News