Acer Ferrari 1100, One Large Disappointment

PC Magazine was finally able to get ahold of an Acer Ferrari 1100 to review, and the results are less than stellar. With complaints about the 12-inch screen that isn't even LED-back-lit, a large clunky design, and underwhelming performance, it seems that the only redeeming feature is the integrated, slot-loading DVD burner. "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."

Re:12" screen?

[Anonymous Coward]

My laptop has a 12.1 inch screen at SXGA+ resolution (1400x1050 vs. 1366x768 for WXGA) so I don't think this is the 12 inch screen you are familiar with.

Re: Lenovo X61 HAHAHAHA

[PFAK]

Troll.

The X61 has excellent [notebookreview.com] reviews [tabletpcreview.com], infact I own one myself. Under "light" use (and I'm sure that Excel falls under light use), I can get 7 hours out of the battery with wireless enabled, if I'm watching XViD with VLC I can get about 4 hours out of the battery.

The hard disk is not slow at all, I'm running Windows XP and boot time is under a minute on the machine and is sufficient for most tasks.

VGA for projectors, and it's not a PS/2 Port

[langelgjm]

Seriously who needs a VGA, and a PS/2 port on their laptop nowadays?

Lots of people need VGA out to hook up to projectors. Also, that's not a PS/2 port. Judging by the pin configuration, I'm guessing it's an S-Video out or something, for attaching to TVs, etc.

Re:12" screen?

[SlashdotOgre]

You're missing the point, the people looking for an ultraportable notebook wouldn't even consider a model with a 15.4" screen, heck 13" is pushing it. While of course you could find a 15.4" model from Dell (or just about any other vendor) for under a grand, you can be gauranteed those things will weigh at least over 5lbs. The ultraportable notebook market targets people who carry a notebook with them all day and don't want something that will weigh them down or be cumbersome to open. What they want/need is something that you won't even notice you're carrying, that can be opened on a plane even when the jerk in front of you is fully reclined, something with enough battery to get you through your last sales call.

I agree that $1800 is way too much to spend, but the fact of the matter is all the modern models that are under 3lbs cost around that range. Personally, when I needed a ultraportable, I bought a 2.6lb Portege 2000 for about $200 from eBay last year, and while it's by no means a powerful machine by today's standards, it has more than enough power for most people's ultraportable needs. It's a P3 750 w/ 256MB RAM, and it runs Fedora Core 6 with Fluxbox amazingly fast. The places I use this laptop, I wouldn't even consider bringing my 14.1" D610, and anything larger would be out of the question. At the same time, if I was doing CAD or art, or many other types of work, there'd be no point for a laptop this small or slow, and those larger models become really attractive.

Re:at least it has a real video card unlike the $1

[Jeremy Erwin]

PS 2.0?

Excuse me, but on MacOSX, we use openGL and fragment shaders. None of this DirectX stuff, thankyouverymuch.

Re: Lenovo X61 HAHAHAHA

[Anonymous Coward]

Informative? Who did that? My X61 has a 7200rpm drive (last time I checked it was not slow) and my 4-cell (that doesn't stick out the back) lasts me 4-4.5 hours on average.

Mod THAT as informative!

Re: Lenovo X61 HAHAHAHA

[SHaFT7]

the harddrive makes a huge difference in battery life. i had an HP laptop a few years back, and i went from 4200rpm to 7200rpm. it was super fast, but my battery life went from 2-2.25hrs to 45min.

Re: Lenovo X61 HAHAHAHA

[Anonymous Coward]

I did opt for a 7200RPM hard drive, but I doubt that makes that much of a difference..

The reason most laptops come with a 5400 RPM (or even 4200 RPM) hard drive is not to save money, but to conserve battery life. Yes, it does make a difference.

Why wouldn't someone buy a mac if they had $1860

[Anonymous Coward]

This is really a series question. I am an engineer not a laptop expert. Assuming the Sony, Dell, and Lenovo are in similar price range, why the would anyone spend $1800 for a laptop that probably has MicroCrap Vista installed? Are people seriously so stupid that they would buy a computer with the most horrible excuse for an operating system when they could have OSX, and better engineered hardware? I understand some that people are stupid but what the FUCK? I believe OSX is UNIX based which should be end of comparison and has stuff like SSH, telnet, ping, c, c++, java, bash, perl, python, ruby, tcl and a really good window system. Vista has that stupid fucking paperclip that pops up when you type, Seriously WTF? What excuse would an intelligent person have for buying a MicroCrap laptop for a higher price than Mac?