Acer Ferrari FR1002WTMi Full Review And Specifications

Pros.:   Great looks, Great build, 120 GB SATA HDD, Good Bundle.

Cons.: Sluggish Performance, RADEON XPRESS 1150.

Way back in 2004 we had a close drag in a 3000 series Ferrari Notebook. The laptop was from Acer who are partners with Ferrari providing them technologies in their Formula 1 racing. The other Ferrari partner; AMD and now even ATI along with Acer set out to build another Rosso Corsa. Well let’s get the tyres smoking and accelerate through this quarter mile review.

 

First Gear: Bundle

Acer Ferrari FR1002WTMi (Laptop)

External HD DVD (IEEE 1394)

IEEE 1394 Cable

Bluetooth Ferrari Mouse

Bluetooth VoIP phone

Power Cable and Adaptor

3 Cell Li-Ion Battery

6 Cell Li-Ion Battery

Care Fabric (In a case)

Laptop Bag

Manual, Driver CD, and Warranty Card

Second Gear: Specifications

 

AMD Turion 64 X2 1.60 GHz TL-50 (512 KB L2 cache)
512 MB DDR2 RAM
ATI RADEON XPRESS 1150 Onboard Video (250 MB Shared)
120 GB SATA HDD
External 8X HD-DVD ROM (Manual says HD-DVD ROM)
12.1″ Inch WXGA TFT (1280×800)
Realtek High Definition Audio
6 Cell 4800 mAh Li-Ion Battery
3 Cell 2000 mAh Li-Ion Battery
WLAN: Acer InviLink Nplify 802.11 b/g/n
WPAN: Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)

IO Ports

124-pin Acer ezDock port
PC Card slot (one Type II)
5-in-1 card reader (MS/MS PRO/MMC/SD/xD)
USB 2.0 ports (3)
IEEE 1394 port (6-pin)
Fast Infrared (FIR) port
External display (VGA) port
Headphones/speaker/line-out jack with S/PDIF support
Microphone-in jack
Line-in jack
LAN: Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000 Network Card
Modem: 56K ITU V.92

Dimensions

Length: 11.90 inches
Width: 8.72 inches
Height/Thickness: 0.82/1.36 inches
Weight: 1.60 kg /1.75 kg (6-cell/3-cell Li-ion battery pack respectively)

Third Gear: Layout

 

Now we move on with the layout of the Ferrari laptop. The front face of the laptop has a 5-in-1 card reader. The five supported formats by the card reader are Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital, and xD-Picture Card. There are speakers on the left and right on the front panel. At the center are the audio ports and a couple of switches.

The audio ports consist of a Line-in Jack, Microphone-in Jack, Headphone/Line-out Jack with SPDIF support. The switches at the center are to activate and deactivate Bluetooth and WiFi. Just beside these two switches is the Infrared Port.

The Left of the laptop reveals some neatly styled air-vents, a Kensington lock, a 6-pin IEEE 1394 port, USB 2.0, and a PC Card slot.

The Right of the laptop has two more USB 2.0 ports, a Gigabit LAN port, Modem port, and an external display VGA port.

 

The back of the laptop houses a 124-pin Acer ezDock port and the DC-in Jack port for charging the battery.

On opening up the laptop from the front view you will notice at the top of the screen there is 225 degrees rotating webcam for video conferencing. An LED on the cam lights up to show the status of the webcam. The rubber linings on either end of the webcam provide grip to turn it around to its capable 225 degrees.

There are protective rubber pads around the screen to prevent the screen from any damage. There is a microphone placed below the screen, just a little towards the right under the Acer logo.

The 84-key keyboard is surrounded by a sporty design of brushed metal around the top of the keyboard. The keypad of the laptop is a bit crammed when it comes to the directional keys. The rest of the keys are pretty easy to work with.

Towards the top left corner of the keypad is the Power ON/OFF button of the laptop while the Caps Lock, Num Lock and HDD activity LEDs have been placed to the right side of the keypad.

Also, there are four buttons; ‘P’ programmable, ‘e’ Acer Empowering Technology, Internet Browser and an Email Application button.

Fourth Gear: Features

 

Most laptops would have features that make it stand out form the other laptops in its range. That said this is a lifestyle product from Acer; a Ferrari branded laptop. The entire ‘Ferrari’ feel that you get from the laptop is outstanding; we are not talking about Ferrari drivers so don’t expect to see Mr. Schumi’s posters.

The laptop is built of carbon fiber and rubberized plastic. The rubberized plastic for the palm rest gives a good feel while typing and comfort to the wrists as well. The carbon fiber body of the laptop makes it light and maintains the portable aspect of this laptop.

The screen of the laptop is a 12.1-inch WXGA and uses Acer’s CrystalBrite Technology to provide the best viewing experience. The TFT LCD supports a widescreen resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels with a 16:10 ratio. The laptop graphics are powered by an onboard ATI chipset. The chipset provided is a RADEON XPRESS 1150 which is not really the best and I’d have expected to see something like ATI’s X1600 chipset on a Ferrari branded laptop.

The standout feature for this laptop is Acer’s GraviSense Technology. This technology is used to keep the data on the HDD protected even incase of shocks or vibrations that could cause data loss. There is a chip under the laptops HDD compartment, it activates and deactivates the GraviSense. A neat feature to keep all data secure and prevent the minor occasions which could cause bad sectors and you’d end-up loosing data.

PCMark 2005

 

Here the Ferrari did just manage to cross over the score of MSI Megabook.

3DMark 2003

The RADEON XPRESS 1150 chipset of the Ferrari scored just a few points above the Megabook in 3D Mark 2003.

Sixth Gear: Battery Life

The Acer Ferrari came with two batteries one 3 cell and the other a 6 cell battery. The 6 cell battery under normal usage offered backup time of almost 3 hours while the 3 cell offered less than 90 minutes. The batteries were charged fully and then detached from the AC adaptor, with many applications like Word, playback of video and music the laptop did last exceptionally well.

Reverse Gear: Conclusion

The Acer Ferrari FR1002WTMi sells for around Rs. 94,999 with a one-year warranty. The price maybe steep, but for a Ferrari fan nothing can come close to the beauty of this laptop. The performance is a downer for the laptop’s sales. Had it have had a better graphics accelerator this laptop would have been just about perfect to satisfy you petroheads and also help you around with your work. At the end of the day it is a lifestyle product; only those who are crazy and at the same time big-shots who wish to prove their popularity will surely go-in for a laptop like this. So in simple words just like not everyone owns a Ferrari the same goes for the laptop.

Test Unit Sourced from: 20:20 Media, Delhi  form Techtree.com

Test Unit Sourced From: Acer India, Bangalore. 

Review Source: techtree.com