Netbook showdown: The top 10 mini laptops rated

By Derek Chesterfield on 30 October 2009, 12:48pm

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Acer Ferrari One £400

The Ferrari One shuns Intel's Atom CPU range and instead uses AMD's new netbook processor, the Athlon X2 L310. This, along with its impressive graphics capabilities, makes the Ferrari One the fastest and best netbook we've ever tested.

Design and usability

Not everyone is going to be happy to be seen with a netbook that sports a prancing stallion on the front, but the contrast between the bold red exterior and sober black finish on the keyboard and wrist rest means the Ferrari One isn't without its visual charms. While it's slightly larger than most netbooks, the extra width is an boon, because its huge keyboard and large trackpad are a joy to use. The roomy 11.6-inch display is also wonderful, as it has a higher-than-usual resolution of 1,366x768 pixels.

Connectivity

The Ferrari One covers off all the usual connectivity bases, with its three USB ports, VGA socket, and wireless-n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support. It also sports an ATI XGP port. This can be used to connect an external graphics card that can drive up to four monitors, run games and display HD video. This external card is an expensive add-on, though, so a simple HDMI port might have been a better inclusion.

Performance and battery life

The Athlon X2 L310 is clocked at a modest 1.2GHz, but its dual-core nature helps the Ferrari One to feel faster than any other netbook we've used. Rather than the weedy graphics chips that most netbooks are saddled with, this one has an ATI Radeon HD 3200 that's powerful enough to display HD video and play games like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Despite the faster components, battery life doesn't suffer too much. Acer says the Ferrari One's battery should last around 5 hours with day-to-day use.

Should I buy it?

While its garish appearance might not appeal to everyone, there's no doubting that the Ferrari One is a fabulous netbook, effortlessly combining ease of use with all-out speed.

Read our full Acer Ferrari One review