Caviar Bets $13,130 on a Messi Phone Samsung Has Not Announced

Caviar wants $13,130 for a phone Samsung has not even confirmed exists. The Moscow-based luxury atelier unveiled a hand-painted, gold-trimmed tribute to Lionel Messi built on the still-unannounced Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, capping production at just 19 units.

The real version of that phone will not be official until Samsung’s Unpacked event on July 22 in London, five days from now. Caviar is asking buyers to commit to a design stitched together from leaks, not a finished retail product.

Caviar Sells a Phone Samsung Has Not Confirmed

Caviar calls the line its Legends collection: two phones, one wrapped around Messi, the other around Cristiano Ronaldo, both timed to the closing days of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The Messi edition uses the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, a foldable Samsung has not yet shown to the public.

Samsung is expected to split its book-style foldable lineup into two distinct phones this year, part of Samsung’s two-phone wager against Apple, with the Fold 8 Ultra as the tall, narrow flagship and a wider Fold 8 sold alongside it. A regulatory filing tied to the SM-F976 model number backs up that naming split, though Samsung itself has confirmed nothing beyond the July 22 date and the host city.

That leaves Caviar selling what amounts to a pre-order on a rumor. Buyers place a deposit on a phone whose camera layout, colors and final price are all still leak-sourced guesses, weeks ahead of Samsung’s own reveal.

Inside the $13,130 Enamel Portrait

The back panel is where Caviar’s case for the price lives. Painters replace Samsung’s standard glass and metal cover with a portrait of Messi rendered in cloisonné enamel, a centuries-old technique where colored glass is fired inside thin gold wire enclosures to hold each hue in place. The result renders Messi’s likeness and jersey number 10 in Argentina’s white and pale blue, framed by 24-karat gold plating on the phone’s edges and the portrait’s outlines.

Caviar built a handful of specific extras into the package:

• Cloisonné portrait – Messi’s likeness and number 10 fired in colored glass across the rear panel, framed in gold.
• 24-karat gold plating – covers the frame accents and the outlines of the artwork itself.
• Limited run – just 19 units worldwide, priced from $13,130 for the 256GB configuration.
• Custom packaging – each phone ships with a gold-plated key and a branded coin.
• Add-on customization – buyers can request extra engravings, logos or design changes for an added fee.

None of those extras touch the phone’s internals. Caviar is dressing up the exterior of hardware nobody outside Samsung has had time to test at scale, since the base device itself is still a leak.

Messi Outprices Ronaldo in the Legends Line

Russian outlet 1RU, citing Caviar’s press service, put the Messi phone’s domestic price at 799,000 rubles, against 679,000 rubles for the Ronaldo iPhone 17 Pro edition in the same market. Messi’s version costs more even though it rides on hardware nobody outside Samsung has held, while Ronaldo’s runs on an iPhone that has been on shelves for a year.

Line up Caviar’s $13,130 figure against the Fold 8 Ultra’s own expected retail price and the gap widens further. Leaks put the real phone at roughly $2,099 to start, meaning Caviar’s version costs more than six times what Samsung is expected to charge for the same base hardware.

Does Caviar’s Craftsmanship Match the Price?

Not always, based on the brand’s own history. Caviar’s past releases have paired expensive materials with build quality that reviewers found underwhelming once the gold wore off the headline. The Messi and Ronaldo phones have not been independently tested yet, but the pattern gives buyers a reason to look past the marketing photos.

Caviar has put out a luxury device, but it misses the mark.

AppleInsider delivered that verdict in a review of Caviar’s gold and carbon fiber iPhone X, a Tesla-inspired build that listed for roughly $4,600 at the time. Testers found a magnetic charging port that never felt secure and a metal camera ring sharp enough to scratch a display during testing.

The pattern has continued since. iMore’s review mocked a Cybertruck-styled iPhone 11 Pro Max as over the top before the review even started, and Caviar answered last year’s Trump Mobile handset with its own gold flag tribute, complete with 50 engraved stars and 13 stripes. None of it approaches the internet’s favorite luxury phone legend, the $48.5 million iPhone myth that never had a real buyer, but the Messi edition is a genuine, orderable product with a real invoice attached.

The Real Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra Remains a Leak

• What we know: Samsung has confirmed its Unpacked event for July 22 in London, where the Fold 8 Ultra, Fold 8 and Flip 8 all debut.
• What we know: Samsung has not confirmed pricing, camera specs or colors for any of the three phones.

• What’s unconfirmed: Whether the leaked $2,099 starting price and camera layout survive contact with Samsung’s own announcement.
• What’s unconfirmed: Whether early store sightings of the hardware are final units or dummy demo models, a distinction leak trackers have flagged repeatedly.

Leaked pricing pegs the real Fold 8 Ultra at a reported $2,099 starting price for the 256GB configuration, which would make it Samsung’s first foldable to cross $2,000. A memory shortage has reportedly pushed the rumored 1TB configuration even higher, toward $2,899.

Samsung, meanwhile, is pulling in the opposite direction on price. The company is advertising up to $1,200 off through trade-in programs for anyone who reserves a Fold 8 ahead of launch, the kind of mass-market discount that has no place in Caviar’s 19-unit run.

Messi’s Likely Farewell Frames the Timing

The 2026 World Cup wraps on July 19, two days after Caviar’s unveiling. Multiple outlets have described this tournament as the likely final World Cup for both Messi and Ronaldo, a farewell narrative Caviar built its entire Legends collection around.

Messi enters the tournament’s closing days with 21 World Cup goals across six tournaments, the most in the competition’s history, per Fox Sports. Argentina’s own run through the knockout rounds, including a win over England that had pundits fixated on goalkeeper Jordan Pickford’s water bottle in Argentina’s scouting report on Pickford, kept the farewell storyline loud enough for a $13,130 phone to seem, to Caviar at least, like reasonable timing. FIFA’s own shop is leaning into the same moment, selling officially licensed World Cup keepsakes alongside signed memorabilia bundles that run into five figures of their own.

Samsung’s real Unpacked event lands in five days. That is when Caviar’s 19 buyers will finally see whether the phone they paid for looks anything like the one Samsung actually built.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Much Does the Caviar Messi Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra Cost?

Pricing starts at $13,130 for the 256GB configuration, before any engraving, extra gold work or design customization, which Caviar quotes separately for each request.

How Many Units Will Caviar Make?

Caviar is capping the Messi edition at 19 units, matching the 19 units planned for the Ronaldo iPhone 17 Pro edition, so the two confirmed football-themed lines top out at 38 phones combined.

Is There a Haaland Edition Too?

Yes. Caviar has also teased a Haaland-themed take on Apple’s still-unreleased foldable iPhone, honoring Norwegian striker Erling Haaland, with fulfillment expected after Apple’s hardware event in September and pricing not yet disclosed.

Will Caviar’s Design Match Samsung’s Final Fold 8 Ultra?

There is no guarantee. Caviar is modifying the exterior of hardware based on leaked renders, and industry trackers have already flagged early retail sightings of the Fold 8 Ultra as demo units rather than finished, sellable hardware.