This Cybertruck-inspired iPhone 11 Pro costs $15K and isn’t made by Tesla or Apple

Phones are rounded rectangles now. Have been for years — ever since the iPhone killed the QWERTY slider dead. They’re getting rounder and rounder, in fact, as manufacturers continue to figure out how to bend OLED screens and raw metals to their will. They’re far too samey, unless you count an array of sci-fi inspired foldables that are so far basically just recreating the flip phone.

I want something edgier to exist in the world. And now, just as Tesla’s Cybertruck shook up the world of automobile design, a Cybertruck-inspired phone has emerged to maybe, possibly, OK probably not inspire the same sort of design in phones.

The exorbitantly priced Cyberphone, which is effectively just a fancy shell around an Apple iPhone 11 Pro, was thought up by the Russian firm Caviar, a company whose impractical fever dreams and opulence we’ve covered many times before. I don’t believe for a moment I’ll ever see one of these in the wild, outside of perhaps an Unbox Therapy video. The starting price appears to be $15,860, according to the company’s website.

But I love that somebody is thinking about making phones look cool, and the cover here actually does seem somewhat practical — a folding cover that theoretically protects your phone’s glass screen, then transforms into a stand for your desk as well.

It instantly challenges the primary argument against phones that aren’t rounded: “Well, people are just going to put a case around it anyhow.” This phone has its case built right in, and it’s made of titanium.

I do have to admit that my childhood love of louvers is also partially responsible for my interest in the Cyberphone, though. Even before Back to the Future tipped me off to the DeLorean’s iconic stainless steel frame and louver-filled hatch, Inspector Gadget’s gadgetmobile made me dream of the day I’d own such a sleek, wedge-shaped auto:

I wound up settling for an ‘88 Integra, though. No louvers. Miss that car a lot.