Why You Can Trust CNET Acer Ferrari 4000 review: Acer Ferrari 4000
Acer's Ferrari is a high-performance wide-screen notebook for those who don't want to take it slow and easy. While its price tag is a few hundred dollars above competitive systems', the Ferrari is beautifully designed and screams performance.
Forgoing the typical dull silver, putty-gray, or black plastic case, the Acer Ferrari 4000 will turn heads with a matte black carbon-fiber case, a prominent rearing Ferrari stallion logo, and accents of race-car red. Looks aren't the only similarity between the laptop and the Ferrari sports car, however: at $2,199 (as of August 2005), the Ferrari 4000 costs several hundred dollars more than the competition. Still, if you have the need for speed, the Ferrari 4000 will leave lesser notebooks in the dust--and look great doing it.
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Built with lightweight materials, the 6.7-pound Ferrari 4000 occupies the middle zone between thin-and-lights and desktop replacements; it's a few ounces heavier than the Toshiba Satellite M35X but much smaller and lighter than the Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 multimedia laptop. Measuring 1.4 inches by 14.2 inches by 10.4 inches, the Ferrari 4000 is thinner than both the Satellite M35X and the LifeBook N3510. Add in the Ferrari 4000's large, 1.1-pound three-prong AC adapter, and you have a system that's portable enough for the occasional trip but really too heavy for regular travel.
While we like the Ferrari 4000's large keys and sturdy keyboard, the slightly curved ergonomic layout took us a little while to get used to. The laptop's wide touch pad matches the large mouse buttons; a central button controls scrolling and Web browsing. Above the keyboard are four instant-start buttons that can be programmed to launch the applications you use most frequently.
Among the Ferrari 4000's strengths is its attractive 15.4-inch wide-screen display, with a 1,680x1,050 native resolution. While we prefer the brightness and contrast on the HP Pavilion dv4000's shiny screens, the Ferrari 4000's display is among the richest and sharpest we've seen. It's a shame the Ferrari 4000 lacks an instant-start media player and dedicated controls for playing videos.
The Ferrari 4000 is also strong on connections for both work and home uses. With four USB 2.0, unpowered FireWire, S-Video, VGA, and--somewhat of a rarity on laptops--DVI ports, as well as headphone and microphone jacks and a Bluetooth radio, this machine can connect to a variety of peripherals. You also get a slot for Type II PC Cards; an excellent flash card reader that supports Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, and even tiny xD modules. The Ferrari 4000 can race online via modem, Ethernet, or an 802.11g Wi-Fi radio, which, in our casual tests, was able to stay online approximately 100 feet from our base station. The machine also features a great, slot-loading multiformat, double-layer DVD burner.
In addition to Microsoft Windows XP Professional and a handful of Ferrari-branded desktops and screensavers, the Ferrari 4000 comes with a few useful utilities, such as Acer eManager for viewing or changing basic system settings. The software bundle also includes NTI Backup Now 4.0, NTI CD & DVD Maker Gold, and CyberLink PowerDVD 5.0.
Though the Ferrari 4000 ships with a 2GHz Turion 64 processor, our preproduction unit ran a slightly slower, 1.8GHz Turion 64 ML-34 processor. Otherwise, our review unit is identical to the model currently available, with a quick, 5,400rpm 100GB hard drive; 1GB of slower, 333MHz RAM; and the latest ATI Mobility Radeon X700 graphics processor. Even with the slower processor, the Ferrari 4000 performed admirably in CNET Labs' benchmark tests, coming in just behind the 1.86GHz Pentium M-based ThinkPad T43. The Ferrari 4000 was slightly faster than the Fujitsu LifeBook N3510, which has a slower, 1.73GHz Pentium M processor. On the other hand, the Ferrari 4000's battery lasted 3 hours, 27 minutes in our drain tests--42 minutes longer than the LifeBook N3510, but not in the same class as the 5 hours, 6 minutes offered by the ThinkPad T43's slightly larger battery.
Acer backs the Ferrari 4000 with a one-year mail-in warranty, which is average for a consumer laptop; you can extend the warranty to three years for a very reasonable $124. While Acer's toll-free support is technically 24/7, you'll reach a live technician only from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. CT on weekends. Outside of those hours, you'll be asked to leave a detailed message; the company claims that a technician will call you back within one hour. Acer's support Web site offers downloads of manuals, utilities, and firmware upgrades, as well as a searchable knowledge base of owners' experiences. The support site lacks the chat room that HP, Dell, and others use to connect support technicians with frustrated users, but you can send questions or concerns to support reps via e-mail, which is read and answered Monday through Friday.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
 | BAPCo MobileMark 2002 performance rating |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
| BAPCo MobileMark 2002 battery life in minutes |
System configurations:
Acer Ferrari 4000
Windows XP Professional; 1.8GHz Turion 64 ML-34; 1024MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM 333MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon X700 128MB; Seagate ST9100823A 50GB 5,400rpm
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510
Windows XP Home; 1.73GHz Intel Pentium M 740; 512MB 400MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon X300 64MB; Fujitsu MHU2100AT 100GB 4,200rpm
ThinkPad T43
Windows XP Professional; 1.86GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon X300 64MB; Hitachi Travelstar 7K60 60GB 7,200rpm