Acer Ferrari 5000 and 1000 laptops unveiled

Following in the treadmarks of the recently released Asus Lamborghini VX1 laptop, Acer has just announced its second generation of Ferrari laptops, the Ferrari 5000 and the Ferrari 1000.

The Ferrari 5000 is the big boy of the pair, sporting a 15.4-inch WSXGA+ display with a high 1,680x1,050-pixel resolution and (slightly slow) 16ms response time. It's powered by the latest AMD powerhouse, the Turion 64 X2 TL-52 processor, which runs at 2GHz, and 2GB of DDR2 667MHz memory -- both of which are plenty quick.

Graphics are sorted, too. Acer has plumped for the ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB of dedicated memory (it can leach an extra 256MB from the main system memory if you get graphics-greedy) plus there's an HDMI port with HDCP -- which you'll need come the advent of Blu-ray, HD DVD and Windows Vista.

The Ferrari 1000 is a squished-down version of the Ferrari 5000. It measures just 302 by 221 by 21mm and weighs 1.6kg, which is fairly tiny for a 12.1-inch laptop. Impressively, it uses most of the same components as the larger 5000, including the processor and memory, but it has to make do with an ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 integrated 3D graphics adaptor, which while capable of playing games is nowhere near as good as the faster Mobility Radeon X1600.

Sadly, the Ferrari 1000 lacks an integrated optical drive. Instead you'll have to put up with an optional external Ferrari DVD rewriter, which we think is a bit of a con. Laptops like the Sony Vaio TX3 are smaller (11.1-inch screen), weigh less (1.25kg) and still manage to squeeze in a DVD drive.

We're also slightly disappointed that Acer doesn't offer a retina-searing red or yellow version, and both laptops are only Windows Vista Capable as opposed to being Windows Vista Premium Ready, but we'll reserve final judgement until we spend more time with the Ferrari 5000 and Ferrari 1000, which cost £1,699 and £1,349 respectively. Both are due in September. -RR