Tulip E-Go Diamond Small Notebook Review

Tulip describes its beaut of a machine as the "world's most desired luxury notebook," and judging by its looks it certainly fits the part. The appropriately named E-Go Diamond, whose chrome handle and rounded curves make it resemble a women's handbag, features changeable skins made of superior-quality leather that are set with white-gold plates (which in turn are set with diamonds), titanium hooks, and sliding panels that mask unsightly ports and connections. As you may have discerned, this notebook is all about the bling, as the specs are pretty standard issue: 12-inch antiglare display, 2GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, integrated webcam, Bluetooth 2.0, and DVD burner. Still, this could be the next big fashion accessory for Paris Hilton-types worldwide.

In 1982 the GRiD Systems Corporation released the GRiD Compass 1100 laptop, it was not IBM-compatible and it cost the consumer $10,000, which translated into todays dollars is about $20,200. Certainly out of reach for all but the most dedicated enthusiast, but some people needed this expensive laptop. These days you can buy a top of the line laptop for about $700 and it will probably come with about 15,000 times more memory than the GRiD Compass.

In October 2005, Ego Lifestyle B.V., a Dutch fashion and lifestyle oriented company, released the Tulip E-Go Diamond laptop. The laptop is being marketed as the first and ultimate lifestyle notebook for men and women with a cosmopolitan lifestyle. It comes with an AMD Turion 64-bit processor, 1 gigabyte of RAM, a 100G hard disk and a 12.1 inch widescreen WXGA resolution screen. You get all this for a very reasonable 283,000 Euro (US $355,000). But wait, that’s not all – the laptop also comes with solid palladium white gold plates, in which 358 brilliant cut diamonds are embedded with surgical precision, a total of 80 carats, as well as 2 square cut rubies placed in the logos. No wonder it is the most expensive notebook ever built.

The hardcore gamers looking into this purchase will be glad to know that it comes with the ATI Radeon Xpress 200 mobile video card with video-out capabilities. The most expensive laptop is shaped in a stylish handbag shape with an integrated chrome handle and changable Alcantara skins, so it won’t be hard to take it with you to LAN parties and other social events.