Sony Xperia P gets covered in 24-carat gold

There may be a recession on, but that hasn't stopped Sony from producing a run of limited edition Xperia P phones cased in solid gold.

That may sound a rather strange move considering the current economic climate, but it doesn't look like Sony will be selling them. Instead, it's giving them away via its Facebook page.

The aim of the project is to "highlight Xperia P's sleek unibody design and aluminium back cover" according to the Sony Mobile blog. No more than 15 have been made. If you fancy getting your hands on a mobile that Auric Goldfinger would be proud of, keep an eye on Sony's global Facebook page next week.

It does seem an odd choice of handset, seeing as the Xperia P is a decidedly mid-range affair. It boasts a 4-inch screen, with a resolution of 540x960 pixels giving it a pixel-per-inch count of 275ppi, which doesn't quite compare to the Xperia S's 342, or the iPhone 5's 326. On the back is an 8-megapixel camera, and inside whirrs a 1GHz processor -- certainly nothing special by today's standards.

The translucent bar at the bottom looks intact in the gold-plated version, so it should still light up to indicate incoming calls. Let's just hope Sony has rectified some of the build quality issues we highlighted in our review. No matter how gold and shiny something is, if you can't get the SIM card in, it's not going to be much use.

And while it might not be your cup of tea, just remember, it could be a lot worse.

Would you use a gold-plated handset? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or on our Facebook page.