Review of Acer Ferrari 1000

Acer sponsorship of the Scuderia Ferrari racing team brings the compact Acer Ferrari 1000 Laptop. Featuring Carbon Fiber lid, fierce candy red trim, and the speed-invoking Ferrari logo. The similarities do not stop at the exterior, as the Ferrari 1000 is filled with power, thanks to its AMD Turion Dual Core chip and 768 MB RAM. Light weight, it weighs four pounds (3.85 lb.) and with a thickness of only 1.36 inches means its designed for portability.

Design

Classified as an ultra-portable, taking this laptop out and about is a pleasure thanks to its small size and light weight. To help reduce size and weight on the Ferrari 1000, an integrated optical was excluded, instead comes with an external optical drive. Opening the laptop was designed to make you feel as if youve entered the cockpit of a supercar. Starting with the Carbon Fiber lid, it is flanked by red trim and has a distinct logo adorning the center.

Features and Performance

Powered by AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56 dual core processor, this CPU sports a 2x512KB L2 cache, runs on an 1800 MHz HyperTransport Bus, and is built on a 90nm manufacturing process. Maximum power dissipation (Thermal Design Power, TDP) of the TL models is at 35W. ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 chipset equips an integrated graphics. Not to mention, 768MB DDR2 667MHz RAM and supports up to 4GB RAM and a Seagate Momentus 5400.3 (ST9160821AS) 160GB 5400RPM 8MB cache SATA drive.

Lets get to more goods: the vibrant 12.1-inch WXGA (1280 x 800 native resolution) widescreen display with Acer CrystalBrite high-brightness LCD and with LED backlight. It enhances the viewing experience, as color and contrast are much more rich and vibrant. Viewing angles were respectable and color inversing was minimal.

Attached within the LCD panel-mounted is a 1.3 megapixel camera located above the display. You also get Acer VisageON software, which tracks 22 points of the users face so it to remains centered in the frame.

The Ferrari 1000 came with two batteries: one 6-cell rated at 4800 mAh and one 3-cell rated at 2000 mAh. The larger 6-cell capacity battery protrudes from the rear of the machine but the 3-cell does not. Overall battery life with the 6-cell isnt that great.

Recommendation:

The Acer Ferrari 1000 is stylish, feature rich and and is plenty fast but there is a caveat. For a 12-inch ultraportable, it is heavy. Battery life stinks, and the optical drive is external (which could be a pro or con). Gamers need to look elsewhere for their gaming delight and try the M1330 instead. Instead, users who opt for this machine will appreciate the slick Ferrari styling and great performance. While its bigger brother, the Acer Ferrari 5005 outperforms the 1000 in almost every respect, the Ferrari 1000 is tailored for a different audience. If you must have the Ferrari styling and prefer a lightweight stylish machine, then the Ferrari 1000 could be a good choice for you.

Acer Ferrari 1000 Technical Specifications

• Processor AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56 1.8 GHz
• Memory 768 MB DDR2
• Harddrive 160GB
• OS Windows XP Pro
• Weight 4 pounds
• Screen 12.1
• Screen resolution 1280 x 800
• Graphic Card ATI Radeon Xpress 1150
• Battery Life 3.5 hours

Pros

• Fast
• Small and portable
• Sleek design
• Many connectivity options, loaded with accessories.
• Loads of features

Cons

• Poor graphics performance
• External optical drive
• Heavy for 12” ultraportable