Skip to main content

Caviar unveils $4,300 gold-plated iPhone engraved with Putin’s face

caviar supremo putin gold iphone 5s
Apple’s gold iPhone 5S was a huge hit all around the world when it first debuted, but luxury brands have been gold-plating iPhones long before Cupertino released it as a color option. Recently, Italian luxury goods company Caviar revealed a gold-plated iPhone 5S with Russian President Vladmir Putin’s face engraved on the back, alongside the Russian crest and a few lines from the country’s national anthem.

Now, you too can celebrate your love for Putin with the Caviar Supremo Putin iPhone 5S.  The portrait is engraved by hand, into the iPhone’s gold-plated back, and once the product is ready, Caviar slips the phone into its own high-class velvet box.

Recommended Videos

Naturally, this is being offered in Russia, because we doubt it’ll find any success stateside or in many parts of the world. In the product description, the company claims that buying the Supremo Putin is the best way to show your patriotism. The phone will certainly cost you though: after all, 147,000 rubles, which amounts to $4,300, is hardly cheap.

Putting Putin’s face on a gold iPhone might seem like a strange choice for an Italian company, especially given the recent controversy surrounding the Russian president’s policies. However, Caviar is a luxury brand with a good following in Russia and this is one of the less extravagant iPhones the company offers, so perhaps it’s not so strange after all.

Caviar sells iPhones made with diamonds, alligator skin, cobra skin, and other bizarre materials, too. Also of note is the company’s gold-plated iPhone 5S with Muhammed Ali’s face engraved on the back. It’s unclear why Putin and Ali were chosen to grace the backs of these gold-plated iPhones, but perhaps Caviar saw a correlation between the two tough guys’ personalities.

Malarie Gokey
Former Digital Trends Contributor
As DT's Mobile Editor, Malarie runs the Mobile and Wearables sections, which cover smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and…
Watch the iPhone 14 Pro destroy this phone with a 200MP camera
White Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus versus white iPhone 14 Pro in camera face-off.

The Redmi Note is one of Xiaomi's bestselling smartphone ranges ever. While it started out by offering reasonably good specifications at great pricing, the lineup has since diversified into countless different models, which are not easy to keep track of. The higher end of the Redmi Note series now leans into the territory of subpremium phones.

The Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus begs your attention with impressive specifications, such as 120-watt superfast charging, a 200MP camera, incredible 120Hz AMOLED displays with Dolby Vision, and more. We're particularly curious about that 200MP camera and whether it lives up to what the company promises or is just another gimmick.

Read more
Want to turn your iPhone into a Galaxy S23? This app is for you
OneUI TryGalaxy view

The best kind of marketing is the one that happens in the hands of an interested person who just might be your next customer. Samsung certainly thinks that way and is trying its best, not just because it’s a sound strategy, but also owing to the fact that arch-rival Apple has mastered the art with its meticulously imagined store experience.

Samsung’s latest ploy is a web app designed for iPhones that will give you a taste of its One UI 5.1 software that runs on its Galaxy S23 series phones. Actually, scratch that. The company is welcoming you to “the other side” by letting you experience its heavily customized take on Android and find out for yourself if it can surpass iOS for you. The solution is called Try Galaxy.
Try Galaxy makes your iPhone a Samsung phone

Read more
12 iOS 16.4 features that are about to make your iPhone even better
iPhone 14 Pro Max with an iOS 16.4 icon next to it.

While we wait to get our first look at iOS 17 later this summer, Apple has officially released its latest iOS update in the form of iOS 16.4. This is the fourth major iOS 16 update, and there's a surprising amount of new features and goodies to check out.

Following multiple beta versions over the last few weeks, Apple began rolling out the final build of iOS 16.4 to everyone on March 27, 2023. If you have an iPhone and want to know what's new, here's a look at the 12 biggest iOS 16.4 features you need to check out.
Apple Books brings back the page curl effect

Read more