IT Pro Verdict
The Acer Ferrari One 200 lives up to its motorsport branding well as it’s the fastest netbook we’ve tested, though it pushes that definition to breaking point. It’s really a well-featured, relatively inexpensive laptop, but the lack lustre battery life and other issuettes mean that it’s not really suitable for business use.
Acer has been associated with Ferrari for some years now, and has produced a succession of suitably adorned laptops as a result of this partnership. However, netbooks are the happening machines of the moment, so it's no surprise to see the famous Maranello marque now on a new small portable machine from Acer in the form of the Ferrari One 200.
What will first stike the eye is the lid, which is painted the famous Ferrari red. The yellow prancing horse sits at the centre, pushing the Acer logo to the side - a clear indication of who's boss here. The paintwork is of a suitable quality too, befitting a Ferrari-branded machine.
Once you've got past the in-your-face paintwork, you'll notice that this netbook is larger than most. It boasts dimensions of 285 x 205 x 24mm (WDH) and weighs in at 1.5Kg, which makes it heavier than some full-blown laptops, such as the Lenovo X301 or the Macbook Air. The depth figure is also worthy of note. This is actually a fairly chunky machine.
Open it up and the racing motifs abound. At the bottom of the keyboard, to the sides of the trackpad, is a cris-cross carbon fibre pattern. But don't be fooled, it's just a pattern. The Ferrari logo again sits in the corner and the power light is angled and glows red. The red edging also extends down from this to what looks like car like vents at the bottom rear, in which sits a Gigabit Ethernet socket on the right and a VGA port on the left.
We particularly like the fact that the Ferrari One doesn't just have the usual dimensions of most netbooks and is angled at the edges. The track pad is angled too, and a single silver plastic strip acts as the trackpad button, again with the words Ferrari One etched onto it. While it looks good, we would have preferred it to be longer and feel more responsive.
The motoring touches also extend underneath the machine, with the stands all featuring tyre treads very Evo.
The display is a healthy 11.6in in size, which is a touch more than most netbooks. It is also bright and vivid and we had no problems using it even under harsh office lighting. A 640 x 480 resolution web cam sits at the top.
