Sharp M4000 WideNote

This is the lightweight notebook you’ve been waiting for. The Sharp M4000 WideNote combines well over five hours of battery life with a brilliant 13.3-inch widescreen and wraps it all up in a 3.7-pound silver package. Even better, the M4000 doesn’t sacrifice anything when it comes to comfort, features, or performance. At $1,799, this ultraportable isn’t cheap, but if you’re constantly on the move it’s worth every penny.

Open the lid and you’re greeted with a shiny brushed aluminum housing that makes a statement without attracting fingerprint smudges. Even more impressive is the crystal clear widescreen display, which at 300 nits is noticeably brighter than what you’ll find on competing notebooks.

Sharp managed to cram a full-sized keyboard into the M4000’s chassis, and the keys are downright chunky; you’ll have no problem typing longer e-mails or other documents. We only wish the touchpad and mouse buttons were slightly bigger.

You won’t find many ports around the chassis, but Sharp covers all of the most important bases. There are two nicely spaced USB 2.0 ports on the right side along with the Ethernet port and DVD burner, and the left side houses the PC Card slot, VGA port, and mic and headphone jacks. A single SD Card slot up front comes in handy for loading pictures from compatible digital cameras. The only notable omission is a FireWire port, which is becoming less of an issue as more digital camcorders support USB for video transfers.

The M4000 plowed through productivity chores thanks to its 1.73-GHz Pentium M processor and 512MB of RAM. We didn’t notice any hiccups when we downloaded large digital photos while burning a Green Day CD in the background. MobileMark agreed with our take on the system’s multitasking abilities, giving it a solid score of 199. You’ll have plenty of room to store pictures and other files, as the M4000 comes with a large 80GB hard drive.

This notebook pulls away from the field when it comes to battery life. In our tests, the M4000 lasted 5 hours and 20 minutes on a charge with the Wi-Fi adapter turned off and only eight minutes less with it on. That’s only in Max Power mode. Pressing a button above the keyboard gives you instant access to three preset power usage settings, including the more frugal Mobile and Max Mobile modes. In the latter mode we got nearly six hours of endurance.

Want even more runtime? Sharp’s unique Advanced Power Management Software fine tunes 11 different parameters, from the brightness and refresh rate of the LCD to the audio system and wallpaper.

If you’re a gamer, there are better options. Intel’s integrated graphics turned in a respectable 3DMark2001 score of 4,520, but Sony’s identically priced VAIO S460/B with Nvidia graphics is a much better choice if you want to play 3D titles. Keep in mind that Sony’s 13-inch system is a bit heavier and lasts only three hours on a charge.

Sharp skimps a bit in the software department, including only Norton Antivirus, Drag’n Drop CD+DVD for burning discs, and InterVideo’s WinDVD player with Sharp’s sharp-fx plug-in to improve picture quality when watching movies.

Too bad the sound quality wasn’t as good as the eye candy; the M4000’s two speakers produced tinny sound and we couldn’t get much volume through a set of standard headphones. Since we tested a preproduction model, we anticipate the final version of this notebook will have improved audio.

Without a doubt, the Sharp M4000 is one of the best ultraportables of the year. It’s got the battery life you need, plus a brilliant display and plump keyboard to make things easier on road warriors.