X-bit labs

Acer Ferrari 1005WTMi Notebook Review (page 3)

Category: Mobile

by Alexander Britvin

[ 06/12/2007 | 03:06 PM ]

Design and Ergonomics

Acer’s designers and engineers have managed to convey the sports spirit of racing cars in their Ferrari 1000 series using strict yet smooth lines instead of wavy curves. The carbon fiber case, like that of the Acer Ferrari 4005WLMi, has a glossy coating of the lid (it means the lid gets soiled easily) under which a finish-flag checkerboard pattern can be seen. The face part of the notebook looks like the nose of a racing car with a spoiler.

Placed in the center of the lid is the Scuderia Ferrari emblem. A non-chrome logo of the laptop manufacturer is in the top right corner. The rear part of the “hood” is separated from the glossy surface with a thin red molding. Such moldings go along the two sides of the display, too.

The Acer Ferrari 1005WTMi is a rather small computer and there are few connectors and switches on its front panel (from left to right):

• Line audio input
• Microphone input
• S/PDIF output combined with a line audio output (for headphones or external speakers)
• Bluetooth switch (this switch enables/disables the integrated Bluetooth interface; when enabled, the appropriate indicator begins to shine)
• WLAN switch
• IrDA port

This group is bracketed within two stereo speakers, which are oriented upward at the user.

On the left there is a 5-in-1card-reader that supports Memory Stick/Memory Stick Pro/MultiMediaCard/Secure Digital/xD-Picture Card.

A 1.3-megapixel Acer OrbiCam camera is centered above the screen. There are two wheels on both sides of it, stylized to look like car tyres, to turn the camera about.

This OrbiCam can be turned around within an angle of 225 degrees, thus allowing to shoot objects both ahead and behind the LCD panel. The camera turns around counterclockwise and captures images at an angle of 45 degrees. An activity indicator is located to the right of the camera eye.