Samsung's 18k Olympic phone

(Credit: Akihabara News)

Samsung has been holding out on us. The company did say last month that it would be issuing limited-edition phones in honor of the Beijing Olympics, following the likes of Lenovo and its "Cloud of Promise" laptops. But they didn't tell us the handsets would be made of gold.

Crave has a special relationship with all things gold, as some readers may have gleaned, so this phone naturally caught our eye--and it's not so ugly that we had to poke it out. True, some might find the P318+ a bit garish in its 18-carat gold casing, but we must remember that it's being made to commemorate the Olympics.

There's no indication that they'll be handed out to every gold-medal winner, however, which we think would be an obvious marketing gimmick. On the other hand, the runners-up might not appreciate getting handsets plated in silver and bronze.