Believe It or Not, Hello Kitty's Now a Laptop

The Japanese seem to have quite an obsession with the "Hello Kitty" character. The pink pseudo-feline is just about everywhere these days, from everyday items to various pieces of electronic equipment. And after getting its own phone a while back, the character has now become the centerpiece of a hot new luxury laptop manufactured by NEC and dubbed LaVie G, a portable computing system filled with Swarovski crystals and all other sorts of bling-blings that would make Hello Kitty fans rejoice (and most of the other people turn their heads in horror).

As the Japanese PC Watch website informs us, the device incorporates no less than 299 crystals from Swarovski, arranged by hand in 5 configurations. The Hello Kitty emblem dominates the whole thing, as it is placed in the central part of the device and there are also some more or less "lovable" heart-shaped motifs placed in the corners. And to top it all, the laptop is colored in pink (one of the Kitty's trademarks). Moreover, Hello Kitty's not only on the outside, it's on the inside as well, as the manufacturers have also thrown in a screensaver and a wallpaper of the lovable Japanese character.

Despite being a luxury item available in a limited edition, the LaVie G does provide the Kitty with some computing prowess. Thus, the device runs on an AMD Mobile Sempron 3400+ (1.6GHz) processor, features 1GB of RAM (but supports up to 2GB) and incorporates an on-board AMD ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 graphics chipset. Moreover, it provides quite a lot of storage space for all the Hello Kitty content the owner might want to store, as it includes an 100 GB HDD and also features a ±R DL DVD writer.

The laptop also provides quite a few data input options, as it sports 4 USB 2.0 ports, a 4-pin FireWire port, as well as a memory card reader (SD/Memory Stick/ xD Picture Card compatible). Moreover, it comes what could be considered standard connectivity options for a portable system, including here 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN card, Gigabit Ethernet card and a modem. The Kitty's powered by a Ni-Hydrogen battery pack, which provides a functioning life of around 1.8 hours and is rather bulky for a modern laptop (360 mm x 260 mm x 36.6 mm, at a weight of around 3.3 kilos).

If you're fascinated with this Helly Kitty-themed device, you should know that it retails for around 1 639.69 US dollars, which is a rather high price for the configuration, but a price most Hello Kitty hardcore fans would probably pay gladly.

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