The no-frills gold phone

In a triumph of money over sense, we present to you the Æ+Y from Danish firm Aesir.

It’s a phone like any other, except for the fact that it’s made from 18-carat gold. And you can’t check your email or look on the internet. Or send picture messages. It does, however, have a calculator.

Other disadvantages include an extremely poor battery life of just five hours. Oh, and the price, which comes in at £36,000 for the gold model.

By way of justification, its designer said: “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.”

For that money (not to mention the functionality), it should come with a free dunce cap.