Co-branding results in a Ferrari notebook

Co-branding results in a Ferrari notebook

Zatni Arbi, Contributor, Jakarta

Driving a red, Ferrari 575M Maranello along Jl. Sudirman, South Jakarta, is definitely not something that most of us would ever dream of doing.

Nonetheless, if you were to have a highly unlikely opportunity to do so, you would certainly say, "Aw, what the heck!" and would carefully listen to the gentle sound of its 12-cylinder, 5750 cc engine as it purred away. What an experience that would be!

More feasible is perhaps to take a Ferrari to your next meeting with the board of directors. At least, you can impress them with a bright red, computer notebook that conspicuously displays the Ferrari pony logo.

A closer look will tell your audience that it is made by Acer, the computer giant from Taiwan. In today's world of high- performance everything, IT and automotive technologies have become so intertwined that it provides a great opportunity for a computer vendor to become an official supplier to a formula racing team.

Acer was the official supplier to the Scuderia Ferrari team. The notebook is a spinoff from the cooperation between the two companies.

"Ferrari had very strict requirements for a co-branding program like this, though," said Acer Country Manager for Indonesia Jason Lim, during the recent launch of this notebook in Jakarta.

"For example, we had to make sure that the color exactly matched the red of the Ferrari cars. I was also told that even the name of the notebook had to be 'Ferrari 3000,' not 'Acer Ferrari 3000.'"

Considering this is a limited-edition notebook, I felt very honored to be the first to be given an opportunity to take it for a spin.

Along with Acer, AMD was also an official sponsor of the Scuderia Ferrari racing team. That is the reason this notebook uses an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ processor instead of one of the more common Pentium Mobile processors from Intel.

During my informal test, the 1.45 GHz processor had much more than enough horsepower to drive most applications, and there should be no serious compatibility issue with Windows XP Home Edition, which Acer had chosen for this notebook.

Although it may be considered a collector's item for its distinctive color and comprehensive features, the price is still within the affordable range -- US$ 1,999. For that money you get a generous package of features, including a 15-inch screen, a large, curved keyboard, built-in 802.11g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities, a DVD-RW, a 60 GB hard disk, 512 MB of DDR SDRAM, four USB 2.0 ports, one IEEE 1394 FireWire port, one S-Video out port, a fast Ethernet adaptor, a built-in V.92 fax/modem, a parallel port, a multiple-format card reader and a Ferrari mouse.

To begin with, I liked the screen very much. It's big and bright and was capable of super-high 1,900 x 1,440 resolution. The ideal resolution for me is of course 1,024 x 768, which gives the screen a very good contrast ratio.

The vertical and horizontal viewing angles are acceptable, although still somewhat below those on my Eizo Flexscan 685 monitor. The graphics subsystem incorporates an ATI Radeon Mobility 9200 chip, and it also has 128MB of RAM.

I also like the scroll button at the bottom of the touchpad, which makes it very easy to scroll up and down. There are also two buttons on the front panel to toggle the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi facilities on and off.

The keyboard has a nice feel. I would suggest that Acer make better use of the extra space on the sides of the keyboard area by placing the PgUp, PgDn, Home and End keys on the right, rather than making you use a combination of the Fn key and the PgUp or PgDn key to get Home or End.

The hard disk is protected from accidental bumps or vibration. You can see the color-coordinated protective pad on the underside of the notebook.

The processor feels a bit warm, although the keyboard and its surrounding panel are still cool enough to let you work comfortably for hours. As there is an opening for the fan on the underside, it is not really advisable to use it on your bed -- something that I like doing. The Li-Ion battery lasts more than two hours, but I think I would have got more operating time if I'd spent longer setting its power management options.

As part of my tests, I tried connecting the Ferrari 3000 to a ThinkPad T40 using peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connection. It took me quite some time to get the two notebooks talking to each other, as I'd never done it before -- not because they refused to do it.

When they were finally connected, I was even able to surf the Internet from the Ferrari 3000 by sharing the ThinkPad's Internet access. Once again, I got the chance to really appreciate the power of wireless LAN.

There are definitely a lot of things to like about this notebook, but there are also a number of suggestions that could be made.

For starters, Acer might want to use a cordless rather than a corded mouse. Also, this early production unit showed a number of design changes that were apparently made quite late in the design process.

Acer's design team, for example, must have started with the idea of making the DVD-RW drive removable, since you can still see what was to be the opening for the latch underneath the notebook. What worries me a bit, as a result of the design change, is that the plastic undercover of the DVD-RW felt a bit flimsy, and therefore you need to be extra-careful when lifting the 2.9-kg notebook, with your hand clutching the right side.

Another last-minute design change was also noticeable in the smaller slot beneath the PC-Card slot, which I guess was meant for a smartcard reader.

This thin slot is now covered. On the rear panel, there was also a covered opening next to the parallel port. I would say it was meant to be used for a either a 15-pin serial port or a connector to a docking station. Clearly, with so many USB ports and a large display already available on it, this notebook would hardly need a docking station. Keeping in mind that this is an early production model, I have no doubt that Acer will improve the overall design next time.

Technologically speaking, the notebook may not represent the latest advancements as its four-wheeled siblings embody. However, if you want an eye-catching notebook that you can take to the boardroom to grab the attention of the big guys, here is the undisputable choice. Its computing performance and broad array of amenities will definitely not disappoint, either.