A hands-on with the 18-carat golden HTC One now a reality

Gold-plated smartphones are becoming more and more common, as there obviously appears to be a market for the obscenely expensive luxury devices. The HTC One has received its fair share of attention by London-based GoldenGenie as early as June earlier this year.

Now, the 18-carat HTC One below is, once again, produced in conjunction with GoldenGenie, but this time around it's been specifically crafted for the 18th anniversary of the MOBO music awards (hence the logo on the back). Despite being by far one of the most beautiful handset on the market right now, gold definitely manages to add to its exterior. Unfortunately, as you can imagine, gold and other precious metals, while pretty, are far from practical – the unit that the folks over at AndroidCentral got their hands on (one out of just five, by the way) was already pretty scuffed, as you can see. If it were us, this bad boy would sleep tight in the snuggliest, most fluffy case money can buy to avoid just that.