Mobiado phone gets a touch of Midas

(Credit: Mobiado)

There are two things that have distinguished Mobiado among the many luxury phone makers of the world: First, it's from Canada; second, its handsets have avoided the type of excessive bling that others have so readily succumbed to in the desperate quest to draw attention to themselves.

But no one is immune to the pressures of competition, and Mobiado is taking some steps along this gilded path as well. The rather clinically named Professional 105 GCB features 24k-gold plating--right down to the screws and buttons, according to Unwired View--while its "Executive Model" is adding phones encased in ebony and cocobolo.

The internal specs are nothing to write home about, with a 2-inch display, 2-megapixel camera, 1GB of memory, Bluetooth, and an MP3 player. And of course, the body is made of its trademark aircraft-grade aluminum, though that seems more appropriate for its "Camo" model than anything else.