Acer Inc. http://www.acer.com
The Ferrari series is the only one of Acer 's laptop lines that favors design over price and performance. The use of carbon fiber on the lid, the sporty red colors, and the signature Ferrari logo are the details that drew fans to the Ferrari 5000 when Acer launched it. Then came the Ferrari 1000 series, a miniature version of the 5000, which had one serious feature flaw: Despite its 4.4-pound weight, it lacked a built-in optical drive. The Acer Ferrari 1100 ($1,860 street), though far from being the lightest ultraportable on the market, improves upon the 1000 by integrating a slot-loading DVD burner.
The Ferrari design is immediately distinguishable by the prancing stallion logo, yellow on black. Although the vibrant reds have been omitted, Acer did a great job of dressing up the lid, such as adding a touch of carbon fiber and a rubbery texture that feels like an auto tire along the edges. The 1100 is as thick as the Ferrari 5000, and its 4.4-pound frame is far too heavy compared with other ultraportables on the market. The 1100 basically took a plastic shell and fancied up the exterior to hide the laptop's bulkiness. By contrast, the Apple MacBook Air paid closer attention to the materials used and molded its aluminum alloy chassis into a cracker-thin design. Meanwhile, the Sony VAIO VGN-SZ791N took the same carbon fiber material used in the Ferrari, combined it with a magnesium alloy, and made its screen paper thin.
The Ferrari's12-inch screen is not LED-backlit, so it doesn't have some of the power-saving benefits as that of the MacBook Air, the Sony SZ791N, and the Fujitsu LifeBook P8010. On the other hand, it's fine for in-flight videos and photo editing. The keyboard is about the same size as the one on the Lenovo ThinkPad X61, but not nearly as comfortable. The mouse buttons, much like those on the ASUS U6, are nightmarishly rigid and difficult to use.
On paper, the standard-voltage AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-66 CPU, 4GB RAM, and discrete graphics look like they can pack a serious punch. Yet according to the SYSmark 2007 Overall scores, the Ferrari 1100 is only a shade faster than the Fujitsu P8010 and the Apple MacBook Air, which have low-powered parts. The Sony SZ791N's Intel Penryn processor beat out the 1100's 2.3-GHz AMD Turion by 22 percent, while the ASUS U6S—using Intel's previous-generation Merom processor—beat it out by 18 percent. That's not to say that the 1100 can't handle tasks like video encoding, Adobe Photoshop CS3, and light 3D rendering—it's simply not as fast as its Intel counterparts. Battery life is respectable at 3 hours 27 minutes, though not as long as that of either the Sony SZ791N (3:49) or the Fujitsu P8010 (5:05).
In terms of energy efficiency and environmental attributes, the Acer Ferrari 1100 is Energy Star 4.0-compliant, despite running a 2.3-GHz AMD processor. It hasn't filed for EPEAT certification, but Acer follows proper recycling methods and is eliminating hazardous materials from production. According to my own energy tests, it consumed 34 watts in idle mode.
The Acer Ferrari 1100 would be more attractive if its price ($1,860) wasn't higher than that of the more aesthetically pleasing Apple MacBook Air ($1,799) or the ASUS U6S ($1,699). For those who passed on the first-edition Ferrari ultraportable because it lacked an optical drive, the 1100 now has one built in. But in a world consumed by miniaturization, it will have to shave off a bit of weight and improve its performance scores for it to compete with thoroughbreds like the Sony SZ791N, the Dell XPS M1330, and the Lenovo X61.
Acer Ferrari 1100
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