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."

Pffft....

[canUbeleiveIT]

it seems that the only redeeming feature is the integrated, slot-loading DVD burner.

My cheapie Gateway has that. I'm just sayin'...

Re:

[EVil Lawyer]

But is your cheapie Gateway an ultraportable? The point is that slot-loading DVD burners are a rarity among the UMPC crowd.

Re:

[v(*_*)vvvv]

Most new models have them, or have the option.

I find it rarer for a notebook the size (weight) of the mbAir not having a built-in drive.

12" screen?

[Loconut1389]

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.

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:12" screen?

[mr_matticus]

He indicated it was too much for his taste, but he also fairly indicated that this is the market's price range all around. You might think that a Wusthof is an overpriced knife and Farberware gets the job done fine. That clearly doesn't mean that Wusthof should lower its prices.

Who says you're getting less? You'd have to be extremely one-dimensional to make that claim. A 50% weight reduction might easily be worth more than a 15" screen. A loss of 3/4" in thickness could very well make sense for a slower CPU and fewer ports. If you don't need or want something, it doesn't have any value to you.

You don't care about looks, size, or weight. So this isn't for you. A business traveler probably doesn't care about having a desktop on his shoulder. So your machine isn't for him. It's presumptuous to claim you're getting "less" in an ultraportable than in a flimsily built standard laptop.

Re:12" screen?

[moosesocks]

Who says you're getting less? You'd have to be extremely one-dimensional to make that claim. A 50% weight reduction might easily be worth more than a 15" screen. A loss of 3/4" in thickness could very well make sense for a slower CPU and fewer ports. If you don't need or want something, it doesn't have any value to you.

Yes, and no. What if you don't have to make major compromises for the advantage of portability?

Apple's last generation of PowerBooks were essentially identical across screen sizes. The 12" model had virtually all of the important features of the 15" model, and the 17" didn't add all that much of value (apart from the big screen). It was no surprise, that the 12" model was one of the most popular and highly-regarded machines that Apple ever produced. Fast processor (for the time it was produced), a full range of ports (2x Usb, Firewire, Display, Ethernet, Modem, Audio), DVD Burner, decent graphics processor, and literally everything else you'd expect to find in a high-end notebook.

I own one such machine, and although the small screen does get annoying at times, the increased portability makes it 100% worthwhile. I've got a nice big screen at home, and at work that I can use if I need to, although a 12" screen is perfectly adequate for what you'd want to use a laptop for anyhow...... Serious photoshop work and marathon coding sessions do benefit from a big screen, although most tasks are perfectly fine on a smaller screen.

Not that this is an advertisement for Apple in any way..... Their recent machines have been somewhat of a letdown. The MacBook made numerous sacrifices in the name of affordability, and actually *increased* the size of the machine (albeit in the name of re-scaling the screen to a more practical aspect ratio). The MacBook Air, on the other end of the spectrum, made far too many sacrifices in the name of portability, and also costs a bloody fortune given how crippled it is.

Nobody needs a 15"+ 5+ pound laptop. The benefits of a small machine vastly outweigh those of a large one, and it's not all that difficult to build a full-featured machine into a small chassis without making too many compromises.

Re:

[mr_matticus]

it's not all that difficult to build a full-featured machine into a small chassis without making too many compromises.

And Apple did just that with the MacBook, just as Dell has done with some of its XPS line, Sony, HP, and Lenovo have several of those as well. You're welcome to buy one of those, but to suggest that it's adequate for everyone is simply not the case. A five-pound MacBook isn't what everyone wants.

None of them are ultraportables, though.

Again, you're presumptively mocking the situations where thin and light matters more than it does to you. Two and a half pounds doesn't sound like a lot to you, but it's a

Re:

[moosesocks]

I don't want to turn this into an argument, because the Air is a nice machine, although it fills a distinctly different niche from the 12" Powerbook.

The Air is *strictly* a machine to be used either as a "second" computer, or to be plugged into a permanent workstation with a mouse, external storage, etc...

The dual cores, LED screen, etc are all technological improvements that could have just as easily been added to any other machine.

The lack of wired ethernet is a massive drawback. Wireless isn't everywher

Re:12" screen?

[mr_matticus]

Well this Ferrari seems a bit lazy, but as to other ultraportables: yes.

It is no small feat (no pun intended) to reduce these machines. Whether it's a $2100 Vaio or an $1800 MacBook Air, every millimeter is a fight. Take the MacBook. It's one of the world's thinnest notebooks to begin with--barely over an inch thick overall. It is completely maximized for space as to "standard" notebook components.

Then look at the MBA. It is the same machine, only less than half the volume. It's 0.3" thinner at its very thickest, and averages about half an inch thick throughout. How do you do that? What makes it so that you can package a thinner machine? Keep in mind that most notebooks are 1.5" thick, and a notebook is already a complex miniaturization of a desktop system. The low-travel keyboard alone takes up about a third of the thickest part of the MBA and about a quarter of the thickness of a Vaio. How do you manage heat distribution when there is so little room for air circulation? How do you move heat away from components horizontally because radiating upward won't actually allow heat to escape? How do you further miniaturize an already-tiny CPU package (for the MBA, it involved new packaging--smaller and more expensive for the same thing)? How do you cram a whole motherboard into a space smaller than your typical PCI sound card? How do you make a battery small enough to fit in that height but last long enough (for the MBA, it's to remove all the bulky packaging and the space-wasting bay and put it directly in the case--it's not the first company to do so)?

Every millimeter is a fight. Removing the optical drive gets you maybe 1/3 of the way there for the MacBook Air. The rest of that makes a difference. There are plenty of people who would take the extra fifth of an inch back so they could keep the DVD drive. Sony makes a great Vaio for that, but it costs at least as much as the Air.

Is it really an extra $1000? The answer to that question is the same as the answer to "why is the very fastest CPU $500 more than the next best, and beats it by maybe 5%?" Because that's why they call it the bleeding edge. Early adopters pay the premium that makes things happen. The trickle-down effect takes over from there.

Re:

[exploder]

Which laptop is that? IMO 12" is a really sweet size for a laptop (I love my Dell XPS m1210), but I feel cramped at 1280x800.

Ok, this line says it all

[jollyreaper]

The Ferrari series is the only one of Acer's laptop lines that favors design over price and performance.

If I'm dropping $1800 on a laptop, I'm expecting design AND performance at the expense of affordability. For that kind of money, why not get a Mac? Sheesh! A fool and his money are some party.

Re:

[68K]

'Some party'? The phrase you're looking for is 'a fool and his money are SOON PARTED.'

Re:

[jollyreaper]

'Some party'? The phrase you're looking for is 'a fool and his money are SOON PARTED.'

The trick is to find the right fool when he's buying rounds. :)

Re:

[mdwh2]

If I'm dropping $1800 on a laptop, I'm expecting design AND performance at the expense of affordability. For that kind of money, why not get a Mac?

Or the Asus or Sony. Acer aren't the only maker of PC laptops.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not dropping $1,800 on a laptop even if it performs oral sex whilst singing "Bohemian Rhapsody", balancing my checkbook, finding me a better job, changing diapers, and ensuring the tax thugs don't know about my dolphin smuggling.

Re:

[jandrese]

$1800 really isn't all that much for a laptop. While the low end ones are reasonably cheap, once you get fancy the price shoots up amazingly fast. Even boring old Dell laptops [dell.com] get well over that.

Re:

[jollyreaper]

If I'm dropping $1800 on a laptop, I'm expecting design AND performance at the expense of affordability.

Um. $1800 isn't worth what it once was.

$1800 may not buy as much as it used to but it takes just as long to earn it. Hell, for the people who have been laid off and are working shit jobs, it takes even longer to earn it than before.

indeed, it's worth more

[Trepidity]

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.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

I never got the ferrari

[jawtheshark]

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.

Re:I never got the ferrari

[jo42]

...sheepishly puts away his Ferrari coffee cup, Ferrari mouse pad, Ferrari poker cards and Mercedes Benz umbrella... :-p

Re:I never got the ferrari

[OakLEE]

Or a better question, why would Ferrari license their trademark out to be slapped on something that any reasonable person could tell is a piece of crap just by looking at it. Seriously who needs a VGA, and a PS/2 port [pcmag.com] on their laptop nowadays? What year is this, 1998? And for $1860? Unless you really need the dedicated video to play games on a 12" screen, I don't see much reason to buy this one.

As for the case. Who needs carbon fiber on their laptop? Its use obviously didn't save any weight. The case weighs 4.4 lbs. You can also tell it uses cheap plastic that will discolor or crack easily. If I'm paying $1900 for a laptop, it better at least look and feel like a $1900 laptop (see a Lenovo Thinkpad or MacBook Pro). Ferrari has come a long way since the days when they were associated with flashy but brittle cars. I don't think it's in their best interest to rekindle that memory by putting their name on flashy yet brittle laptops.

Re:

[Loconut1389]

Lots of people like to dock at work and only use the (exceptionally small) screen on the road. Unless there's a dedicated all-in-one docking connector, VGA is important.

Re:

[Jesus_666]

Or you just do like Apple does and ship a DVI-to-VGA adapter.

Re:

[mdwh2]

But, but ... I'd rather have something that I can just plug straight in - that Just Works.

Re:

[Jesus_666]

So a simple mechanical adaptor that goes between the cable and the notebook is unacceptable? For how long are notebooks supposed to support old standards? The VGA connector is becoming more and more rare with most people switching to flatscreen monitors and it takes up real estate that can be used to house additional ports (in fact, the MBP would have to either sacrifice the ExpressCard slot or change the entire hinge and become at least one centimeter taller in order to be able to house that port). I think

Re:

[mdwh2]

I don't think not having them is that much of a problem, but I don't see how it actually makes things worse ("a piece of crap" the OP said). I don't have VGA on my laptop which isn't a problem - but the fact that it does have a PS/2 slot also isn't a problem.

And I was just parodying the way that whenever Macs have something done slightly simpler or as standard, even if you can do the same thing on a PC, the Mac's claimed to be better by chanting "It Just Works(TM)!" Strangely this doesn't apply when the sit

Re:

[Jesus_666]

If you mean the MacBook Air that's so simple you can't even use Ethernet and watch a DVD at the same time without using a USB hub - yes, that doesn't really work. But then again the MBA is an exec toy and the target demographic has no qualms paying top money for a device that's not really useful.

As for VGA ports: Having them can make things worse - like I said, the 15" MBP was designed to be relatively small and thus doesn't have much room for connectors. Every bit of space that desn't already house some

Martin McFlyer? Is that you?

[freaker_TuC]

These days they got plug and pray, the added step for a close religion ;)

oh, it's Marty Mcfly

[freaker_TuC]

I guess I've needed to do some research before posting, that happens when you're mouse-rsi-trigger happy..

Re:

[level_headed_midwest]

Oh, you mean that adapter/dongle that almost everybody that has a Macintosh laptop and needs to hook it up to a projector forgets to bring, completely wrecking the presentation or lecture they were supposed to give.

Re:

[Jesus_666]

There's a nice invention called a pocket. My backpack has one; I tend to store stuff like adapters and the remote in there so I don't even have to remember bringing them. Bad preparation is not a neccessary requirement for being an Apple user; a basic sense of style and a smug feeling of superiority are the only ones.

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:

[colinrichardday]

Hey, the screen on my laptop would go out (laptop still running, just couldn't see the display). I was able to see it by plugging in a monitor to the VGA port.

Re:

[TheRaven64]

Modern projectors use DVI. Older ones can be used via a DVI to VGA adaptor. Having a VGA port on a laptop seems archaic - my last two haven't had one and I give presentations fairly often.

Re:

[Splab]

Jup thats a S-VHS port.

And to GP; having VGA out seems to be smarter than DVI, most projectors and screens that support DVI has a VGA input also, so going with VGA should target a broader audience.

Re:

[Briareos]

having VGA out seems to be smarter than DVI, most projectors and screens that support DVI has a VGA input also, so going with VGA should target a broader audience.

There's this thing called a DVI-I connector [wikipedia.org] that gives you both, so why cripple anything with an analog-out-only port these days?

np: The Orb - DDD (Dirty Disco Dub) (The Dream)

Re:

[Anubis350]

A $2 adapter turns the dvi port on my macbook pro into a vga port, and still gives me the digital when I need it. Not including digital on an 1800 dollar laptop is a bit ridiculous these days, particularly since we're starting to get projectors using digital inputs. I can use both on my laptop, this new acer certainly can't.

Re:

[vux984]

Seriously who needs a VGA, [...] port on their laptop nowadays?

Most people?

Connecting to large screens or projectors is a pretty common use for laptops.

Sure from a technical standpoint, I'd prefer DVI, with adapters to VGA, but VGA is probably more convenient. Most projectors I encounter are still VGA, as are a lot of budget screens, and the expensive ones at least support VGA too.

So for an ultra portable do I want the technically better DVI and the hassle of adapters everywhere I go... or just put up with

Re:

[hjf]

I really don't know why people like the GP care to post. They seem to think that when there's a new technology, the whole world just ditches all their old stuff and replaces it with whatever is new. Seriously... how many DVI projectors are out there? In my university, they're all VGA, and they work fine. No need to replace it with DVI just because it's new.

Also, if it has a DVI out, you need to make sure it's a DVI-I output (good luck finding that by other than testing it), and you need to carry your adapto

Re:

[speeDDemon (nw)]

Its easy to identify DVI-I vs DVI-D, the difference is quite apparent if your observant (oh, and have bothered to read a little about the technology)

Re:

[OakLEE]

I should have been clearer in saying DVI over VGA but you made my point, so thank you.

My big gripe is that for $1900 bucks it should come with a DVI Input. Sure we're still in a VGA populated world now, but what about in 3-4 years when DVI projectors become the norm? You'll need an adapter then, and then your video output is going to look horribly inferior to native DVI outputs.

Incidentally, for $2k I would expect a laptop to remain usable for 3-4 years, which is why I'm using that time frame. If its not

Re:

[Scooter]

why would Ferrari license their trademark out to be slapped on something that any reasonable person could tell is a piece of crap just by looking at it.

Because - it pays. Ferrari will stick their label on any piece of crud going if it will make them a buck. I had a look round the "Ferrari Store" in Rome last week and was amazed at the tat on offer with a Ferrari badge on it. A cheapo Olympus compact digital camera for example - normally retails at £100, but produced in red with Ferrari badge - 895

Re:

[PureCreditor]

i thought that's a S-Video port, not a PS/2 ?

Re:

[FudRucker]

waiting for an Acer Volkswagen bug...

Re:

[seanmeister]

"FERRARI: From Envy, Retarted Redesigns Are Recycled Idiocies.

Welcome to our new, improved "Car names and what they really mean" game.

From the makers of the new improved "Humorously coincidental mis-spelling" game!

Far from a disappointment

[cyofee]

The people buying it will get everything they wanted - a laptop you can edit text and sufr the internet on, with a Ferrari logo.

Re:

[McNally]

a laptop you can edit text and sufr the internet on

What a great transposition.. On some machines you "surf", but cut a few too many corners and you "sufr"..

Jeez...

[yourexhalekiss]

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 ba

Re:

[Shemmie]

I'll second that. My M1330 is a couple of months old, and it's a beauty. 2 gig RAM, 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo, the 9 cell option (it runs and runs, even Bluetoothing to my phone for net access), Geforce 8400, LED back-lit, and 320 gig HD. I look at the specs on the Ferrari and cringe, to be honest. The only thing I could complain about with my laptop is that the black top attracts fingerprints and smudges like a finger-print magnet.

When that's the biggest complaint, you know it's a good system.

Ferrari 4000

[KingJ]

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

Re:

[ScrewMaster]

I don't expect to be looking for another laptop for a while though while this one is still going strong.

Good job. You just jinxed yourself.

Re:

[ivan256]

I have a Ferrari 3400 that I bought for the same reason.

Unfortunately, the backlight doesn't come on unless I use the driver supplied by Acer, and they haven't updated it since the subsequent model came out. So I have a decent graphics chip and crappy old drivers. Thanks Acer!

(The machine is great otherwise; at least once the "car starting" noise is turned off at bootup... Durable, cool to the touch, slot loading, thin, light...)

Re:

[CompMD]

I have always liked Acer laptops, I had a Travelmate C303xmi convertible, and I miss it. At work we have Dell machines, and the senior engineer laptops we have now are Precision M90s. I'm not a huge Dell fan, but they are cheap and they do their job. I was actually impressed with the first M90 we got. It has a Quadro FX graphics card with dedicated memory which is fantastic for doing CAD work. Siemens NX and CATIA work flawlessly. I was happy to see that the M90 had three buttons on the trackpad as we

Acer 1000

[Kupfernigk]

In fact you can still buy, heavily discounted, the 1000. (Mind you the supplier I went to is down to their last 5). I did, because both the alternatives in the price band only came with Vista and there was no guarantee that XP drivers were available for everything.

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

look at the bright side

[FudRucker]

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...

Acers decline

[fartrader]

I blame it on Schumacher's retirement.

Unsurprising...

[Aardpig]

...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 c

PC Mag

[qazwart]

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)

Boy, that PC magazine is such a Mac fanboy site.

Horrible design

[SpaghettiPattern]

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?

Re:

[Oktober Sunset]

Take a look at their clothing line and you'll start to see the pattern.

Re:

[mgblst]

Money!

Re:

[cojsl]

"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?" As always, follow the money. Acer is a major sponsor of the Ferrari F1 effort, which no doubt aided in negotiating the right to use the Ferrari brand on laptops. No idea why this particular machine got the nod, I doubt that Ferrari has any say in what machine gets the label.

But it's a Ferrari!

[dangitman]

It's red! And goes... fast... it's sexy... and stuff. Isn't it?

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.

Re:

[PFAK]

Yes, I have the extended battery. Note that: Lenovo doesn't even support Linux on that hardware, so your mileage will vary.

Re:

[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:

[Nightspirit]

I have a fujitsu t4220 tablet. With the extended battery and 4200 rpm hard drive it got about 7.5hrs of battery. I put in a 7200 rpm drive and now I get about 7.3 hours. Not much of a difference (and the slight difference there is may be because the of wear/tear on the battery over the past 6 months).

Re:

[Anpheus]

Power consumption on modern hard drives has dropped over time, so if you switched the hard drive recently, you might be getting a benefit from improved efficiency or power management. On the other hand, if you had opted for the same hard disk when you bought your laptop, you might have noticed a more significant difference.

Depends on config

[Kupfernigk]

This does not make any kind of sense. The screen uses much more power than the HDD, so the idea that consumption of the whole laptop would more than double is frankly bizarre.

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 thin

Re:

[TeknoHog]

Yeah, I can't imagine why anyone would like integrated Intel graphics that have full opensource drivers available in your friendly neighbourhood distro.

Re:

[CastrTroy]

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.

Re:

[Rob Simpson]

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?

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

[beelsebob]

$1500? The MacBook costs $1099.

Re:

[Joe The Dragon]

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.

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

[mr_matticus]

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.

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

[EdIII]

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.

Re:

[MsGeek]

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 [asus.com].

Might be a bit too big...

[Rob Simpson]

I don't have any pockets big enough to carry the eee, anyway. The Samsung Q1 [umpcportal.com], while quite long, might be narrow enough to fit in a jacket pocket. There are some upcoming ones that might work, too... here [umpcportal.com] is a list.

Re:

[LordLucless]

http://www.oqo.com/intl/products/index.html [oqo.com]

Re:

[Z00L00K]

Maybe it's the HTC Shift [htc.com] you want? 800 grams...

Add a bluetooth headset and you are set.

Re:

[Jeremy Erwin]

PS 2.0?

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

Re:

[mdwh2]

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 p

Re:

[Joe The Dragon]

also you are looking at a big ram hit when you are useing vista with on board video.

Re:

[Runefox]

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

Re:

[mdwh2]

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

Re:

[TheThiefMaster]

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).

To be fair, everything ran poorly on the nvidia 5000 series, due to it claiming shader support, despite being very bad at them.
"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 fo

Re:

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

I'm just shocked that Ferrari would even consider putting their brand to such an utter turd. How the hell did Acer manage to trick them into it? I just can't believe how much of a turd that thing is.

Re:

[Basehart]

AMD sponsors the Ferrari Formula 1 cars but no sign of Acer on their 2008 entry. It's a mystery to me too.

Re:

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

Perhaps they aren't as well engineered compared to German supercars. But to say they are junk -- or as junky as that laptop -- is simply an insult to the designers, engineers, and builders at Ferrari and everywhere else. There F1 cars seem to do well.

Besides... Anyone who thinks a Ferrari is overpriced yet a Porsche isn't, is probably a wanker who always wears sunglasses all the time (and not just auto-tinting glasses). They're both overpriced and therefore he probably isn't sensible. Sensible is a Volvo V4

There's something worse than an Acer laptop

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

Acer technical support. They go beyond incompetent into the realms of evil.

Re:This shouldn't be at all surprising

[Jeremy Erwin]

Really, not even backlit, that sounds like a really expensive paperweight to me.

It's not backlit by an LED, but there probably is a florescent bulb behind the screen

Re:

[mikael]

That happens with my laptop (Sony Vaio) - for some time I had this battle where the system would state that the power cable had been disconnected and it was switching to battery power (even thought it was still plugged in). I would end up having the system remaining off for the entire evening. This always seemed to happen when the weather had suddenly become colder. I am not sure if this was a dodgy power supply voltage or whether the room was slightly colder. But shifting the power cable connector around a

Re:

[CastrTroy]

I've had my Walmart Special Acer since September. Never had a problem with it. Probably one of the better laptops you could get for $500. Granted, if you run the stock Windows Vista that comes with it, it's slow as molasses in January, but if if you pop a nice Linux distro on it (Mandrive in my case) it becomes quite a good machine.

Re:

[CastrTroy]

Same for me. Added half an hour of battery life, and probably an hour of actual working time, since I'm not waiting around for Vista to do whatever it is Vista spends all it's time doing. Even with all the stuff they added, I'm still not sure how they made it so slow.

Re:

[johny42]

Have you ever seen an Acer fanboy?

Re:

[Nimey]

Yes.

Re:

[Nikker]

Does this mean I was just Rick Rolled?