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Sharp M4000 review: Sharp M4000

The Sharp M4000 WideNote offers a 13.3-inch screen, an optical drive, and a long battery life in a sleek, 3.7-pound package.

Brian Nadel
4 min read
Sharp M4000 WideNote

Lots of notebooks are either too big or too small, but the $1,799 Sharp M4000 WideNote is just right for business travelers looking to slim their load for the road. With its 13.3-inch wide-screen display, midrange Pentium M processor, and high-capacity battery, this system takes Sharp's notebooks to new heights of practicality and economy--although the machine's range of ports, amount of memory, and networking might be limiting to some.

7.2

Sharp M4000

The Good

Bright, wide screen; sleek lightweight design; five hours or more of battery power; very good Wi-Fi range.

The Bad

Limited to 1.5GB of RAM; lacks Gigabit Ethernet; one-year warranty; no S-Video or FireWire port; lacks business-level security features.

The Bottom Line

The flashy Sharp M4000 WideNote offers a wide screen, a comfortable keyboard, and decent (though not stellar) performance in a remarkably light case.

Looking at the M4000 WideNote's magnesium case with brushed-aluminum accents, we can see why this sleek laptop is the hottest laptop in gadget-crazed Japan. Measuring 12.3 inches wide, 9 inches deep, and 1.2 inches thick, its dimensions are similar to those of the thin-and-light Averatec 4200 and the Sony VAIO VGN-S470P--but, at 3.7 pounds, the M4000 WideNote is almost a pound lighter than both models. Going by weight, the Sharp is more in league with smaller laptops, such as the Acer TravelMate TM3002WTCi. Even with its small AC adapter, the M4000 WideNote weighs a remarkable 4.3 pounds.

The M4000 WideNote's wide case accommodates an excellent full-size silver-color keyboard, as well as surprisingly full-sounding stereo speakers. Unfortunately, the notebook's touch pad is remarkably small, and its two mouse buttons are tiny; there's no scroll button or scrolling strip. One of the growing number of notebooks to use the wide-screen 13.3-inch display format, the Sharp M4000 WideNote offers a 1,200x800 native resolution screen that looks brighter and richer than the Averatec 4200's display, which is the same size and resolution.

Around its periphery the M4000 WideNote has most of the ports that business users need, including headphone and microphone jacks, a VGA port, and two side-by-side USB ports, as well as Type II PC Card and Secure Digital card slots. The laptop lacks S-Video and FireWire ports. There's also a combo CD-RW/DVD drive, although it can't be swapped for a second battery or hard drive. Users can get online via the M4000's modem, 100Mbps Ethernet (not the faster Gigabit Ethernet that corporate buyers like to see), or an Intel 802.11b/g Wi-Fi data radio. In our anecdotal tests, the laptop was able to stay online for a longer-than-average 150 feet from a base station. Unfortunately for a system aimed at business travelers, the M4000 WideNote lacks corporate-level security features, such as a fingerprint reader or a Trusted Platform Module.

The system comes with Windows XP Professional; it also ships with Drag'n Drop CD+DVD 4.0 for burning CDs and InterVideo WinDVD for watching DVDs. In addition, the M4000 WideNote includes Sharp's excellent network and power-management utilities.

For $1,799, the Sharp M4000 WideNote offers midrange components, including a 1.73GHz Pentium M processor, a decent-size 80GB hard drive that spins at a slow 4,200rpm, 512MB of swift 400MHz RAM (it can hold up to 1.5GB), and an Intel 915 graphics accelerator that swipes up to 128MB of memory from system RAM. Those components carried the M4000 WideNote to a decent, but not remarkable, performance on CNET Labs' mobile benchmarks. The compact system ran 40 percent faster than the low-performing Averatec 4200, which has a slower, 1.6GHz processor. But the M4000 WideNote scored 11 percent slower than the VAIO VGN-S470P, which included a dedicated graphics card but had otherwise identical components for the same price. If you can make do with a slightly smaller screen and no optical drive, you might also consider the similarly configured Acer TravelMate TM3002WTCi, which performed as well as the VGN-S470P but costs $500 less.

The M4000 WideNote excelled when it came to battery life, running for 5 hours, 19 minutes on a single charge. For users who want even more time away from the wall socket, a Mobile button next to the speakers automatically adjusts system settings for maximum battery life (CNET did not test this feature). By contrast, the TravelMate TM3002WTCi ran 4 hours, 49 minutes, while the Averatec 4200 lasted only 3 hours, 33 minutes. Three hours of battery life is the average for this category.

Even though it's aimed at roving businesspeople, the M4000 WideNote comes with a one-year warranty--well short of the three or four years of coverage we'd expect for a corporate system. The company offers adequate online support, with downloads of key software, updates, and manuals, but the site lacks a chat room or online troubleshooting. On top of Sharp's 24-hour toll-free hotline, you can send an e-mail to tech support representatives; the company promises to answer within 24 hours.

Mobile application performance
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
BAPCo MobileMark 2002 performance rating  

Battery life
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
BAPCo MobileMark 2002 battery life in minutes  

Find out more about how we test Windows notebooks.

System configurations:
Acer TravelMate TM3002WTCi
Windows XP Professional; 1.73GHz Intel Pentium M 740; 512MB DDR2 SDRAM PC3200 400MHz; Intel 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express 128MB; Hitachi Travelstar 60GB 4,200rpm
Averatec 4200
Windows XP Home; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M 730; 512MB DDR SDRAM PC2700 333MHz; Intel 915GM/GMS, 910 GML Express 64MB; WDScorpio WD800UE 75GB 5,400rpm
Sharp M4000 WideNote
Windows XP Pro; 1.73GHz Intel Pentium M 740; 512MB DDR SDRAM PC3200 400MHz; Intel 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express 128MB; Fujitsu MHV2080AT 60GB 4,200rpm
Sony VAIO VGN-S470P
Windows XP Pro; 1.73GHz Intel Pentium M 740; 512MB DDR2 SDRAM PC3200 400MHz; Nvidia GeForce Go 6200 128MB; Fujitsu MHT2080BH 80GB 4,200rpm

7.2

Sharp M4000

Score Breakdown

Design 9Features 7Performance 7Battery 7Support 5