If you’re in to ostentatious displays of wealth – and aren’t burdened by anything as old-fashioned as taste or common sense – or simply don’t think that Apple’s iPad is quite expensive enough, check out the gold-plated and diamond-encrusted edition from Stuart Hughes.
Demonstrated over on Luxuryes, the device takes a top-of-the-line 64GB Wifi and 3G-equipped iPad – already something of a prestige product – and constructs the casing from 2,100 grams of 22-carat solid gold for that premium sheen. While that’s already causing the device to tip the scales at the upper-end of the portability spectrum, the UK jewelers didn’t feel it made the device quite special enough: so they added diamonds.
25.5 carats across 53 individually set ‘flawless’ diamond stones laid out to form the Apple logo on the rear, to be precise.
The design of the device is courtesy Katherine Hughes, and the construction and setting of the gems by husband and jeweler Stuart Hughes.
The device is limited to just ten units, and if you were struggling to save up for an iPad already you may want to look away now: each unit will set you back a whopping £129,995 – that’s around $192,000 dollars.
It’s an interesting proposition: at its heart, the golden iPad is actually of less utility than a stock model. The 2.1KG of gold is likely to weigh you down quite considerably, and more than triples the overall weight of the device – a device, mark you, already receiving fire for being tiring to hold over long periods of time.
The shiny surface is likely to attract the wrong type of attention, too: with reports of people being mugged for their standard-edition iPads – including the tale of one man who lost his little finger in the struggle – do you really want to draw more attention to yourself? With that said, those who could afford the Stuart Hughes iPad can probably afford bodyguards.
The gold-plated iPad isn’t the first ostentatious tech item that the company has created: back when the iPhone 3GS was released it received the same treatment, although that particular item sold at a far more reasonable £22,995 (around $34,000). While the company’s website details that particular device as “currently out of stock,” there are no indications on exactly how successful sales were.
If you have extremely deep pockets – or a very friendly bank manager – the gold iPad can be ordered from the Stuart Hughes website.
