Would You Pay $60,000 for This Phone?

It's one of the world's most expensive cell phones--and it can't even download your email. Then again, you can't exactly expect an 18-carat gold mobile device to be cheap.

Designed by a the Copenhagen firm Aesir, the Æ+Y phone costs a whopping €42,000.00 (about $60,000), and doesn't even boast technological innovations like mobile Internet access or email. Instead its most advanced features include speed dial, a built-in calculator, and bluetooth connectivity.

However, the phone's designer claims to have intentionally excluded some more advanced features: "In an age when the industry seems to think that phones aren’t for speaking anymore, I wanted to focus on the idea of voice, clarity and simplicity".

"The central tenet behind the Æ+Y is to literally craft the visual details, craft the functional tactility, and craft the user interface. The Æ+Y champions the idea of craftsmanship in an age that’s obsessed with more and making last year’s products obsolete. Instead we propose better and long-lasting as our starting criteria".

But there's little excuse for its dismal 5 hour battery time. The iPhone, by comparison, can get a whopping 11 hours, while the Motorola Droid averages about 14.

That's the price you pay for luxury.

The 18-carat gold model, which only 25 of will be sold, isn't the only version of the phone being sold. For lesser nobility there's also a stainless steel version that retails at $10,500. You can scroll down to see both versions for yourself.