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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."
...after all, when did Acer built a decent product? They only spew out el cheapo crap that can barely pass the warranty without passing a couple of times through their repairmen.
er... I like my ibook G4 which I got for cheap. and for ultra portable I would get an Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
like phosphorescent desert buttons singing one familiar song
it seems that the only redeeming feature is the integrated, slot-loading DVD burner.
My cheapie Gateway has that. I'm just sayin'...
at least it has a real video card unlike the $1500 mac book and $1700 mac book air.
PC magazine have a dozen astroturfers here trying to make them appear like relevant, useful and interesting resource?
Deleted
The X61 is a total crap. Its am embarassment to the otherwise good name Thinkpad.
The harddisk it ships with is insanely slow, the batter life is awful(45min under normal excel use) unless you make the thing bigger and heavy with the exteneded model. The plasic feels and looks cheap and on top of everything else the restore software for it, which you have to pay extra for does not work.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
The last 12" screen I had was my Acer 486 notebook, and it was grayscale. Have they brought those back? And for $1,800+? No way! You can get half decent notebooks with 15.4" WXGA's for $800 these days, dvd burner to boot.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Why in hell would one want to have a laptop that is branded after a car? I don't see the point... I wouldn't want to buy a Porsche, BMW, Mercedes or Audi branded laptop either.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
1st, people would buy it just because the Ferrari is a cool car. 2nd, how much do you want to bet Acer profited anyway? The unexperienced will occasionally buy something because of a price tag, as opposed to numbers that they don't understand...
Epic. Just epic.
The people buying it will get everything they wanted - a laptop you can edit text and sufr the internet on, with a Ferrari logo.
...simply sucks. I don't understand what that little horse is doing standing there, really... And with such price tag.
This laptop seems like a real loser. I had a different product with far better features way back this summer, for $600 less: the Dell XPS m1330. Slot-loading DVD burner, discrete graphics card, backlit LCD screen, etc. Dell even sells it w/ Linux. The only "bad" things about it in relation to this laptop is that it has a 13 inch screen instead of a 12", and it weighs about 3.8 pounds. (Still very light.)
Battery life on it is great, too: 4 hours of normal "note-taking" use (I'm in school) with the 6 cell battery, and a full six hours of regular use with the nine cell.
Frankly, I don't see why the slod-loading DVD burner is such a big deal: it's been done better and cheaper before.
I'm going to burn some karma here to point out that this thing appears to have been designed BY A FUCKING RETARD. I've seen more tasteful case mods at the fucking flea market.
"You know why you do not see me styling wit my homies? Because I have no homies!!" -Mojo Jojo
I'm not a fan of the MacBook Air -- but in all honesty, how many times have you been using a subportable only to think "Hmm... if only this thing had a better fill rate." The onboard chip supports PS 2.0, albeit slowly -- it's only a performance limitation, not a restriction on functionality.
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.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
I own a Ferrari 4000 laptop, it's two years old and I still use it on a daily basis. I didn't buy it for it's branding, and I would rather not have the branding however at the time it was one of the few laptops with a real graphics card in it (no intel rubbish!). I want to be able to play games while not at home, anywhere. It's a very durable laptop that has survived many drops and the slot-load CD drive is an excellent idea - I don't know why more laptops don't have them. The only thing i've had to replace during it's intensive life is the hard drive, not exactly Acer's fault.
Next time I buy a laptop, i'm looking at another Ferrari or a machine with a real graphics card at an affordable price. So far the only contender i've seen is Dell's Vostro, but I have a deep dislike of Dell due to previous experiences. I don't expect to be looking for another laptop for a while though while this one is still going strong.
I rent game servers, see my homepage for more information
yea, but the cheaper Dell M1330 and the Sony Vaio SZ791N have better graphics and shit right in its face considering the price tag.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
in a couple of years you will be able to pick up used acer ferreris and the asus eeepc and other similar mini lappys for about 50 bucks in about any pawn shop...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
When it comes to computers, there's quite fast deflation. You can buy a lot more computing for $1800 today than in the past. More importantly, you can get a lot of good machines for a lot less than $1800, and an $1800 laptop is in the upper portion of the price range for mainstream machines---so needs to compete against other things in that price range, like Apple's higher-end products.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Yeah, I can't imagine why anyone would like integrated Intel graphics that have full opensource drivers available in your friendly neighbourhood distro.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
I blame it on Schumacher's retirement.
$1500? The MacBook costs $1099.
The Air is lumbered with a 4200rpm drive.
If you're a fan of having your files emailed to you when the drive gets around to it, that's awesome. For everyone else, pretty much the only option is to upgrade to the solid state drive... at which point the price tag is massively higher.
Granted, the Acer only has a 5400rpm drive rather than an infinitely preferable 7200... and it certainly doesn't compete with the much faster solid state drive... but it's still a big step over the 4200.
Either way, the Air also comes with 2GB vs. 4GB of ram (still more than adequate right now but Moore's Law (yes, I know it's a semi-misquote) means you'll lament it well within the life of the machine).
Then again, to be fair, their only argument in favor of the Air over the Acer was that it was prettier and $60 cheaper.
Yeah, because that's exactly what you want on an ultraportable: a hot, battery-sucking video card so you can game on a 10-13" screen, packed in with a low-clocked, low voltage CPU. An ultraportable is not a desktop replacement. If you need a CAD workstation on the go, you're shopping in the wrong market segment. Who on earth modded this insightful?
For a group of people supposedly more "in the know" about technology than most, you seem to miss the point at a frightening frequency. Your 4GB, 2.6GHz dual-core CPU laptop with a 300GB hard drive and a 17" screen might be exactly what you want: maximum raw power. It's not what everyone else wants, and it's not what the lower 80% of computer users would ever come close to needing. Some people would rather spend that money on other things: size, aesthetics, convenience, true portability. Ultraportables under an inch thick are slim enough to fit in soft folios that are half the thickness of a laptop bag. Thin has its place. Specs are not king.
PS- the MacBook is $1100, not $1500, and it's also not a desktop replacement.
...the Dell M1330 is a great laptop.
The battery lasts 3.5 hours on power saver with wifi on, 2.5 when playing DVDs. It comes with an Geforce 8600, which makes for a good gaming machine. Dell were even kind enough to not bundle software on it or the restore disc (if you ignore Vista and the lack of XP drivers). The design is great - lightweight and aesthetically pleasing.
What makes it even better, is Ubuntu works without too much trouble - the only issue that I've encountered is the Wireless doesn't always start up after coming out of sleep mode
There are a few annoying issues with it, like the lack of proper nvidia/sound drivers for Windows XP, the DirectMedia app (which tends to wipe the hdd partitions without warning) and, of course, Windows Vista...
PS 2.0?
Excuse me, but on MacOSX, we use openGL and fragment shaders. None of this DirectX stuff, thankyouverymuch.
...I've had experience with two Acer laptops, and in both cases I've been very disappointed. Certainly, they're very cheap, but you don't get anything more than you pay for. The build quality is very low -- hold up the laptop by one corner, and the whole thing flexes and creaks. Not a lot of thought has gone into important issues such as thermal and noise management, and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone.
As others have already remarked, it's unclear why a company with a strong brand like Ferrari would chose to pair with such a weak manufacturer. IMHO, Ferrari can only lose by association with such a poor-quality product.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
True - although note that the Sony and Asus have the NVIDIA 8400M GS, which according to the benchmarks in the article do even better.
Actually the ATI x1270 is a piece of crap and I wouldn't be surprised of the Intel x3100 performed as just as well or possibly better.
The X3100 couldn't even run any of gaming benchmarks in the tests...
It doesn't really matter, you won't be playing games on any of those systems. Even the Nvidia 8400M would have a hard time running most games made within the past few years very well.
That misses the point - yes, they won't play the latest high-performance FPS games and so on, but people might still like to play older games (e.g., I only have the GMA 950 in my laptop, but I can still play a game like Morrowind - however, it runs better with a faster graphics card).
They REALLY do miss your point at frightening frequencies. I NEED an ultraportable. Let me rephrase that. I fucking NEEEEED an ultraportable real fucking bad. Excuse my language :)
I have had PDA phones for years, since it combined the 2 things I need most. 1) A Cell Phone, 2) An organizer and limited ability to run code and surf web pages.
I recently canceled my data plan since I have been 4 different PDA models, and I have come to the inescapable conclusion that they all SUCK. The interface is not what I need, I cannot run everything I need from Windows Mobile 5, or 6. Windows Mobile is buggy as hell. Always has been. A PDA Phone just does not get the job done, and it has not gotten any better in 4 years.
So your point is dead on. I need an ultraportable that has just enough specs to get my job done, while being able to fit into an pocket. I don't need to run Crysis on it, or even it have it replace all the abilities of my high end workstations. I just need to be able to have a full OS, like Windows XP Professional. That will allow me to run the exact same programs that I have developed on my workstations. I need this for work, not play. If I wanted to play remotely, I would use my PSP or DS.
I don't need all the "raw power". I just need the ability to manage my networks, run some web pages, access some databases remotely. That's it.
I don't need all the "raw power". I just need the ability to manage my networks, run some web pages, access some databases remotely. That's it.
This looks like a job for Eee.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
I got an Acer 3680 laptop for $500 last September. Quite a low end machine, but that's what I was looking for. It has Intel integerated graphics and works great with Compiz and Metisse. Much easier to get working than most other video cards in Linux.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Boy, that PC magazine is such a Mac fanboy site.
also you are looking at a big ram hit when you are useing vista with on board video.
The $1500 macbook black should have a real video card a NVIDIA® GeForceTM Go 8400M GS with 128MB DDR3 dedicated graphic memory or maybe 256 should work good.
http://www.oqo.com/intl/products/index.html
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
Agreed on 1024x768 (for me, it's native or bust, but my card can't always handle that). Disagree with the 60fps bit. 30fps does me quite well as a lower limit for almost anything (hi, NTSC!), and even 15 is playable to an extent unless there's a shitton of action going on. Anything lower is, yes, a slideshow, but 30-59fps is not a slideshow. If it is, perhaps you should lay off the coffee and Red Bulls. :P
Screw the rules, I have green hair!
The company I work for are contracted by Acer to do the hardware support on their gear and every Acer we've worked on has been cheap hardware and poor design. Anyone buying Acer gets exactly what they deserve, dead machines and a laugh in the face.
Really, this title could have read, "Acer, One Large Disappointment". Seriously, every Acer I've ever used feels like a flimsy piece of junk with a keyboard that's even worse. I'm afraid to try them on store display stands because they all feel like they're about to fall apart.
I remain on the save side saying 90% Ferraris are designed gorgeously.
Apart from the fact the Acer does not seem to convince on performance and sense, why in the name of god would Ferrari put its name on this ugly piece of junk?
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
Since when does anything PC Mag has to say matter ? I mean, cmon these guys also are the ones spouting off about how great ver x.x of xxx software is and its nothing but a bunch of spy/adware....Smells like Bonzi Buddy. You can download it "virus free" (no mention of adware however) from the PC Mag website.
"Computers are a lot like Air Conditioners" "They both work great until you start opening Windows"
You're right, Linux users have a pretty strong reason to like Intel's integrated graphics solutions. The other 99.5% of the market, however, does not.
Eh, they do? Even the most ridiculously huge and expensive desktop replacement wouldn't run the latest games as well as a cheap self-built desktop. And that's assuming that 99.5% of the market consists of gamers, which is a pretty big assumption. So why trade portability for the added heat and expense of discrete graphics?
Acer technical support. They go beyond incompetent into the realms of evil.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
That includes a game like Morrowind, which even ran poorly on a discrete Geforce 5600 (which could only manage to run it at 800x600 with FPS a lowly 15-30 range).
A 5600? How old is that? How does that suggest a much more recent 8400 wouldn't be able to run it well?
I shudder to think how low you have to reduce details/draw distance and resolution to run Morrowind on your GMA 950 or the GPUs in those laptops.
Not at all, I run at max settings at 1024x768, though I miss a few features like reflections (probably due to older shader model, which isn't an issue on newer cards). And I know how well it works on a faster card, as I have an 8600GT in my desktop. But yes, I'd rather have something better than the GMA for playing games - which is why the NVIDIA laptops are preferred over the Mac.
If a game cannot achieve a minimum of 60fps at 1024x768 then it is thoroughly unplayable unless you like blocky slideshows.
For an FPS or other game where fast action is always needed, yes, but not for other types of games. Unless you think watching a TV is like a blocky slideshow.
I don't have any pockets big enough to carry the eee, anyway. The Samsung Q1, while quite long, might be narrow enough to fit in a jacket pocket. There are some upcoming ones that might work, too... here is a list.
Add a bluetooth headset and you are set.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
I don't think many productivity applications use shaders at all so we're most likely talking about games where lack of performance really kills the main goal, having fun.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
As for the toughness or otherwise of Acer laptops, just as with the Mac it depends on the range. We still have a 4+ year old 1501 which has been so heavily abused that numerous keys have lost part of their labelling, yet everything still works and, placed side by side with a Compaq equivalent, similarly used and a year newer, the Acer looks in much better condition. Admittedly it is on its second hard drive but, having been used for two years as a development test web server and database engine, it has an excuse.
The 1000, at its discounted price, is OK. It will happily run a presentation for 4 hours on the 6 cell battery. It doesn't get as hot as you would expect when both processors are churning away near 100%. The 5400rpm drive is adequate and the bundled utilities are pretty good. The absence of a built in DVD drive is no great sweat under office conditions; but then I use the thing for work. The carbon fibre layer in the case is possibly a bit silly, the badging is ludicrous, though possibly no sillier than calling clothes Diesel, but I have an XP laptop with dual CPU and 4G of RAM which should be still perfectly usable for all on the road needs and is warranted until Jan 2011.
To have bought the Macbook Air I would have had to have spent a great deal more money - including buying an Apple backup device and an external DVD drive - a lot more money to get the same warranty, and still not been able to buy a cheap second 6 cell battery to give me a total 8 hour operational life.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
"Homeworld 2" particularly sticks in my mind for this, it actually ran worse (unplayable) on the 5600 than on the geforce 2 I was trying to replace. If a game cannot achieve a minimum of 60fps at 1024x768 then it is thoroughly unplayable unless you like blocky slideshows. Tell that to console gamers, most console games are played on 640x480 60Hz interlaced, with the framerate capped at 30 fps.
45 fps is considered the minimum for twitch games, eg action shooters like UT.
30 fps is the desired framerate for most other games.
10 fps is acceptable in real-time strategy games.
What is critical is the drive settings. If the new drive doesn't shut down properly on request you will use more power.
Actually, switching to a fast drive can often save power. This is because the faster drive is active for shorter periods when reading and writing to the disk. If you use a 4200rpm drive to copy large files, other things being equal it will take 60% longer than a 7200 drive. If (as I have found) the 7200 drive uses about 20% more power when active and about the same when idle, you can easily see where the saving comes from.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
It's red! And goes... fast... it's sexy... and stuff. Isn't it?
... and then they built the supercollider.
These days they got plug and pray, the added step for a close religion ;)
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Does this mean I was just Rick Rolled?
A loop, by its nature, continues. If that didn't make sense, start reading this sentence again.
anyone who wears sunglasses is a faggot. - sunglasses means 'too chickenshit to look someone in the eye,' their employment has nothing to do with the sun, whatsoever.
I guess I've needed to do some research before posting, that happens when you're mouse-rsi-trigger happy..
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Wow. That's the most idiotic thing I've ever heard. I guess ULV processors were a waste of time.
Nvidia measures performance with the second digit in the card's model. 5600 is 5th generation, 8400 is 8th generation, however since the "600" is higher than the "400", the 5600 is the faster card.
Benchmarks? Just because it's true that the 8600 was similar to the 7600 doesn't mean it's true that all x600 are the same, or that a card with a second higher digit will always outperfom a later generation card with lower digit. Are you seriously suggesting that in all the years since the first NVIDIA chipsets, they haven't improved in performance? That a 4600 will outperform an 8500? Sorry, that's ludicrous.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/07/05/vga_charts_vii/page4.html#3d_mark_2005 shows how even a 6600 demolishes the FX 5700, let alone a 5600. Then check out http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=716&model2=722&chart=308 to see the jump from a 6600 to a 7600 (about another factor of 2).
The GMA 950 may not have hardware T&L, but it does support pixel shader 2.0, which should be all Morrowind needs. In any case, I can't imagine that you get very good performance out of that IGP since the Geforce 6150 IGPs in one of my laptops can't even run Morrowind at an acceptable speed. What's your average, 10-15fps tops? Have fun with that...
It gets 100FPS indoors. On large outdoor scenes it drops to about 20-30FPS, but as others have said, that's more than adequate for a roleplaying game, not a fast shooter. So yes, I do have fun with that. And as I said, I know what it's like on a faster card anyway.
I've no idea why the lack of reflections - if it isn't shader model, it may be some other missing feature (unfortunately the Intel chipsets lack a lot - another reason to prefer the NVIDIA laptops).
Not everyone is a gamer interested in the latest games, games where high frame rates are needed and so on - but we still might play an occasional old game.
But not something as old as the GeForce FX 5600.
I don't know if you had a bad experience on that card or what, but seriously - the graphics industry has moved on light years since then.
morons. confusing opposing opinion for flamebait.