Owning a Ferrari Laptop: A Nostalgic Look Back at the Acer Ferrari 4005 WLMi

It's a boyhood fantasy come true – owning a Ferrari laptop! And I've finally fulfilled that dream with the Acer Ferrari 4005 WLMi, which sold for about $2,000 US dollars when it launched in the summer of 2005. This is an official Ferrari licensed product, emblazoned with the same iconic prancing horse badge as all their vehicles since 1947. The equally iconic Rosso Corsa red paint used by Ferrari and other Italian manufacturers since the 1920s is also on display.

While not as bold a color as some of Acer's other offerings, such as the Acer Ferrari 3000, which was a real head-turner with its high-gloss Ferrari red paint scheme, the 4000 series takes a more restrained approach. Instead, it opted for red highlights and a lid topped with real carbon fiber to add an extra dash of motor racing flair. But let's be honest – while the carbon fiber was claimed to help eliminate lid flex and reduce weight, its main purpose is because it looked cool.

The Acer Ferrari 4005 WLMi is fully decked out with mid-2000s portable computing power, as you'd expect for a machine that cost twice as much as the average laptop at the time. It comes equipped with Windows XP, which was still the latest Microsoft OS in 2005, although Vista wouldn't hit store shelves for another year. The AMD Turion 64 ML-37 CPU is also on board, running at two gigahertz and allowing for an upgradepath to 64-bit versions of Windows if desired.

However, there's a catch – the laptop comes with only one gigabyte of DDR-333 RAM by default, so upgrading to its maximum capacity of two gigabytes was a common choice. The laptop screen itself is quite respectable for the time, with a matte finish and a 15.4” TFT LCD displaying a 16:10 aspect ratio resolution up to 1680x1050. Driving this display is an ATi Mobility Radeon X700 graphics chipset with 128 megabytes of videomemory, something we'll definitely be trying out with some Windows XP gaming classics.

For storage, the Acer Ferrari 4005 WLMi has an admirable 100 gigabyte hard drive, which was a generous capacity for its time. This laptop is truly a nostalgic treat for anyone who grew up in the mid-2000s and remembers the early days of portable computing. It's amazing to think that this laptop, with its flashy shell and exotic branding, cost twice as much as the average laptop at the time – but its value lies not only in its performance, but also in its historical significance.

As I sit here admiring my Acer Ferrari 4005 WLMi, I'm reminded of the excitement and anticipation that came with buying a new laptop back in 2005. It was an era of rapid innovation and change, and this laptop embodies the spirit of that time. Whether you're a nostalgic who remembers the early days of portable computing or simply someone who appreciates the unique charm of the Acer Ferrari 4005 WLMi, this laptop is sure to bring a smile to your face.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enGreetings and welcome to an LGR thing!And hold your horses folks, cuz I’ve finallyfulfilled a boyhood fantasy: owning a Ferrari.Er well, a Ferrari laptop but whatever, closeenough I guess.This is the Ferrari 4005 WLMi from Acer, which sold for about $2,000 US dollarswhen it launched in the summer of 2005.And yes, this is an official Ferrari licensedproduct, emblazoned with the same iconic prancinghorse badge as all their vehicles since 1947.As well as the equally iconic Rosso Corsared paint used by Ferrari and other Italianmanufacturers since the 1920s.Though not as much of said red as other Acerofferings.Like the Acer Ferrari 3000, which was a horseof a different color indeed, going all-inwith the high-gloss Ferrari red paint scheme.By comparison, the 4000 series is more restrainedaesthetically, opting instead for red highlightsand a lid topped with real carbon fiber foran extra dash of motor racing flair.Which, let’s be honest, while it was claimedthe carbon fiber helped eliminate lid flexand reduce weight, the main reason it’shere is because they thought it looked cool.The whole lid is coated in a glossy plasticresin too so it still feels like plastic regardless.And any weight-saving attributes are overshadowedby the sheer girth of the rest of the machine,weighing in at around six and a half poundsor 2.9 kilograms,and that’s without the battery installed.So yeah, the Acer Ferrari is fully deckedout with mid-2000s portable computing power,as you’d expect for a machine that costtwice as much as the average laptop at the time.But beyond its exotic branding and flashyshell,what’d you actually get for your $2,000 back then?Well, Windows XP for one thing, which wasstill the latest Microsoft OS since Vistawouldn’t hit store shelves for another year.You also got an AMD Turion 64 ML-37 CPU runningat two gigahertz, allowing for an upgradepath to 64-bit versions of Windows if youdesired.Though you only got one gigabyte of DDR-333 RAM by default, so upgrading to its maximumof two gigabytes was a common choice.And the laptop screen itself was quite respectablefor the time, with a matte finish 15.4”TFT LCD displaying 16:10 aspect ratio resolutionsup to 1680x1050.Driving this is an ATi Mobility Radeon X700graphics chipset with 128 megabytes of videomemory, something we’ll definitely be tryingout with some Windows XP gaming classics.For storage there’s an admirable 100 gigabyte2.5\" 5400 RPM hard drive inside, around twicethe capacity found on most other laptops ofits day.Also nice is the 8x DVD-RW combo drive, capableof burning both DVD and CD rewritable discs.Though originally it had a bright red slot-loadingdrive, so I assume it died or something cuzit only had this tray-loader when I boughtthis secondhand.And in terms of ports, well, check this out.On the left-hand side you’ve got 15-pinVGA output, gigabit ethernet and 56k modemjacks, a USB 2.0 port, a micro Firewire connection,and a PCMCIA card expansion slot.Around back there’s a proprietary PCI Expressconnector for an optional docking station,and both DVI-D and S-video output ports onthe opposite corner.And on the right-hand side there’s a Kensingtonlock, 19-volt power connection, the aforementionedDVD burner, and three more USB 2.0 ports makinga total of four.It keeps going along front as well, with a5-in-1 memory card reader that handles SD,MMC, and XD cards, as well as Sony MemoryStick and Memory Stick Pro.To the right is a built-in mic, an infraredport, LED status indicators, ports for bothheadphone out and microphone in, and light-upbuttons for toggling Bluetooth and 802.11G WiFi.The front here is also where you find thelaptop’s speakers,these two little things off to each side.They sound okay, but they’re still one ofthe weaker aspects of the system, you’dthink they could’ve found room for largerones above the keyboard.Because I mean, look at all that unused space!Acer could’ve had even more room too ifthey didn’t add those extraneous quick launchbuttons up top, or used this unusual smileyface-looking key arrangement.As for the keyboard itself, eh, it’s fine.It’s no ThinkPad keyboard, that’s forsure, but it gets the job done with halfwaydecent plastic caps and key travel of aroundtwo millimeters.The smiley face arch layout takes a minuteto get used to, but it’s spread out enoughthat I didn’t have much trouble.What bothered me more were these dedicatedEuro and Dollar Sign keys down here, exactlythe same size as the arrow keys and positionedright up against them, making the arrows feela tad strange to use by touch alone.And the soft rubbery material surroundingeverything?While I’m sure it was comfortable back in2005, it’s starting to deteriorate and getsticky, an unfortunately common problem withdevices using this stuff.Speaking of aging disgracefully, this trackpaddefinitely shows its age.The touch surface is comically small comparedto the rest of the machine, the buttons’silver finish wears down easily, and it hasone of those 4-way scrolling switches in themiddle that I am not at all fond of.Fortunately, they’ve included a Bluetoothmouse as well, with matching Ferrari emblemand glossy red accents.And yeah, it’s pretty decent!Again, the rubbery bits are slowly meltinga decade and a half later, but otherwise it’sa comfortable enough mouse for 2005.All right enough of that,it’s time to crankthe Acer Ferrari to life and take it for a test drive!Yes, that was a picture of Michael Schumacher’s Formula One Ferrariinstead of the typical Acer POST screen, a nice touch indeed.And I hope you’re not opposed to constantfan noise, because the exhaust fan is alwaysaudibly spinning at this speed, or higher.Unlike an actual Ferrari though, the exhaustnote leaves something to be desired.Ah well, bring on that Windows XP.Now originally, these Acer Ferraris came with a Ferrari F1 Windows theme,complete with screaming V10 noises on startup.Unfortunately, when I got mine the drive had been completely wiped,including the recovery partition.And while it did come with the restore CDsholding all the drivers, unless you have thathard drive partition intact you can’t restorethe entire thing as it was from the factory.So I chose to manually recreate my own Ferraritheme on a fresh XP installation.I was able to get some of the original stuffoff those recovery discs though, like theFerrari World screensaver: a simple, and quitefrankly boring, slideshow that flips througha handful of Formula One photos.There’s also a set of wallpapers actingas a Ferrari-themed calendar, with 24 backgroundsto choose from, one for each month of theyears 2005 and 2006.Again, all of them featuring Ferrari F1 cars.You’d think they would include at leastone or twoof their legendary road cars in the mix, but oh well.Acer also included a whole bunch of software,most of which I chose not to install because bloat.I did set up the Launch Manager app, whichlets you adjust some default startup optionsand change the function of the shortcut keys.And I had to try out Acer GridVista, somethingI saw repeatedly mentioned in old reviewsand marketing material.See those extra buttons along the top rightof each window?Yeah, with this running you can quickly snap windows into placealong different grid patterns, in Windows XP.Something I do all the time on more modernoperating environments, so I’m actuallygonna keep this installed, I like it.And of course it came with a DVD player application,an Acer-branded version Cyberlink PowerDVD.Nothing too special here, but I gotta say:this LCD panel seriously looks fantastic for 2005.I had a Toshiba Satellite in ‘05 and itwasn’t even widescreen, much less this highresolution, nor were the colors this vibrantwith viewing angles this wide.But yeah, it’s high time for some mid-2000sgaming, and for that I’ve got five choicetitles: Unreal Tournament 2004, SimCity 4Deluxe, Doom 3,Need For Speed Most Wanted Black Edition, and of course, Crysis.I’m using Fraps to display the frameratein the top-left, and for each game I’llbe using the normal, default settings suggestedin each game’s graphics options, runningat resolutions of either 800x600 or 1024x768.It was just easier this way rather than tryingto makethese particular games run at a 16:10 aspect ratio.Anyway yeah, as you can see from the UT2004footage here, gaming on the Acer Ferrari 4000is absolutely within the realm of possibility.Framerates into the hundreds aren’t uncommonat these settings, and while it dips below60 during moments of particularly high intensity,it was nothing that got in the way of fragging endless bots on Deck17.SimCity 4 on the other hand, well.This game was brutal on any system, especiallywhen building a larger city like this.Which is exactly why I wanted to try it out!As expected, most of the time you get framerates in the low double digits,even down into the single digits.And honestly, this is still like ten timesbetter than any of my PCs could run it back then,much less my laptop.The fact that you can even tell what’s movingaround when you’ve got multiple disastersgoing in a large city here is still trulyimpressive, despite the objectively horrible framerate.Moving onto Doom 3 you can really get a good idea of howpowerful this system was in ‘05, check this out!Again, I’m running this at “normal”settings, it can run even better than thisif you lower the resolution and graphics options.But yeah, at the time this was probably themost technically advanced game on the market,and the Ferrari 4005 with its ATI Radeon X700 does a great jobrunning Doom 3 at over 30 FPS, most of the time.The most notable issue here is the chugging5400 RPM hard disk, which results in stutteringwhenever it’s trying to load another chunkof whatever chunky gameplay chunks need loading.Still, crazy stuff here, this kind of performance on a laptopwould’ve blown my mind wide open.As you might expect, Need For Speed Most Wantedalso performs admirably, at least on medium settings.It’s not a consistently high FPS or anything,especially with all the physical destruction going on.You’d have to crank it all the way downto manage a smooth 60 on a regular basis,but when I played this on my desktop backthen I was getting framerates in the mid-30s.And I mean, that’s just kinda how it was.Man I’d forgotten how fun this game is,so we better move on before I blow an entireafternoon racing around Rockport.Besides, we’ve gotta find out if it canrun Crysis!And the answer is yes.Yes it can.Cuz the Acer Ferrari 4005 is a beast,especially with the max two gigabytes of RAM installed here.Sure, Crysis is just barely playable at thismix of medium to low settings, but the factthat it’s even halfway there on a laptopfrom 2005?Yeah this is better than I expected, at leastwith itsinfamously hard-to-run graphics and physics tech.Though, I guess this is just what happenswhen you spent two thousand dollars on a desktopreplacement laptop in the mid-2000s.Ahh man, money!It buys things.Like top of the line portable computers, whichthe Acer Ferrari 4005 clearly was on launch.And seeing as I never came close to affording this back then,it’s been a blast playing around with it.But would it have been worth the originalasking price of two grand though?After all, upon looking at old benchmarksand doing my own testing, this was easilyamong the most powerful laptops on the market.However, it was still priced a few hundredbucks higher than similarly-specced machines,which I assume stems from the Ferrari fluff.Carbon fiber lid aside, there’s nothingimportant herethat separates it from a non-Ferrari laptop.It’s more of a status symbol, bragging rights situation than anything elseand that’s just silly.Still, I suppose that’s what you sign upfor.Great performance, high price, loud exhaust, prancing horse up front.Yep, it’s a Ferrari all right.Y’know it sure was tempting to go with aclickbait title for this one, something like“OMFG, I bought a Ferrari from 2005!”But I resisted, you’re welcome, and I hopeyou enjoyed the video.If so, I’ve got more coming out every weekso stay tuned!As always, thanks for watching LGR.\n"