The Ferrari 1000 Series looks just similar to the Ferrari 4000, It has the same carbon fiber design, with red streaks running along the sides and Ferrari's signature stallion emblem. But onething you realize that the Ferrari 1000 has been playing tricks on your eyes. At 11.7 by 8.7 by 1.4 inches (HWD), it's approximately half the size of the 6.6-pound Ferrari 4000, small enough so that the chassis actually leaves some wiggle room in your backpack.

And the Ferrari 1000's smaller screen. It uses a brightly lit 12.1-inch widescreen (compared with the 4000 Series' 15.4-inch display)—great for watching movies on the go. The keyboard is full-size and fairly pleasing for touch typists and those who aren't (like, say, me). The mouse buttons below the touchpad are comfortably large, with "Ferrari 1000" emblazoned across the top. They complement the responsive touchpad well, though I could've done without the discernable clicking noises.

For Graphics, the Ferrari 1000 uses the ATI Mobility Radeon 1150, which shares 256MB of video memory with the system's 1GB RAM. Two batteries come standard, and you'll need both, as the 22-Wh (3-cell) standard battery lasted only a miserable 1 hour 20 minutes on MobileMark 2005 tests.

Acer Ferrari 1000 Specification At a Glance

Type: Media, Ultraportable
Operating System: MS Windows XP Professional
Processor Name: Mobile AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56
Processor Speed: 1.8 GHz
RAM: 1024 MB
Weight: 3.5 lb
Screen Size: 12.1 inches
Screen Size Type: widescreen
Graphics Card: ATI Mobility Radeon 1150
Storage Capacity: 160 GB
Networking Options: 802.11a/g
Primary Optical Drive: External