Special edition VAIO Z Flip makes engine noises on boot-up, forms a dent in your wallet upon purchase

Yeah, it's an actual thing.

VAIO has partnered with Mercedes-Benz to produce a special edition of the VAIO Z Flip notebook for the Japanese market. The creatively-named Mercedes-Benz VAIO Z prominently features the German automaker's branding all over the place—atop the lid, engraved into the hinge, and written above the keyboard. A huge Mercedes-Benz logo is even plastered on the touchpad, in case you forget which carmaker's laptop you're using. And, of course, the default wallpaper is an image of one of the company's concept cars.

There is one sort-of awesome feature about this laptop, though. While booting up, it makes a cool-sounding engine revving sound. It's something you can use to impress your friends, or to confuse strangers, I suppose.

Let's get to pricing. How much money do you have to fork over to get your hands on such a premium device? The regular VAIO Z Flip, which features identical specs to this model including an Intel Core i7 processor, costs $1,299 from the Microsoft Store. Surely the price of the Mercedes-Benz version is in the same ballpark, right?

Wrong. Prepare to pay almost twice as much for the privilege of computing in the lap of German luxury. The Core i7 model of this special edition notebook costs ¥285,000, equivalent to about US $2,556. If you can't afford to splurge on the high-end model, one with a Core i5 processor is available for slightly less: ¥250,000, or about US $2,242.

Or you could buy the regular VAIO Z Flip, slap some online-bought Mercedes-Benz decals on it, and make your own vroom-vroom noises every time you hit the power button. Just saying.

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