Although visuals dominate the scene with the W700ds, letters, symbols and numbers matter as well. The notebook has a keyboard that is on a par with that of a desktop PC -- it offers 18.7mm keys that have a generous 2.4mm of depth and a separate numeric pad. As a night owl, my favorite keyboard feature is the pair of LED lights that illuminate the keys.

For those who prefer a pointing stick over a touchpad (or vice versa), the system has both; there is also the now-expected fingerprint scanner.

Around its edge, the W400ds has an array of ports that's second to none in the notebook world. In addition to the expected connectors for USB (five of them), FireWire and audio, the W700ds also includes three ports for external monitors (VGA, DVI and the newer DisplayPort) as well as two Express Card slots.

Dock of the day

For those who split their time between the road and an office, the W400ds has a convenient docking station that can power the system, has a good variety of ports and adds four USB ports as well as a SATA connector for hooking up a hard drive. A bonus is that it uses the same -- albeit large -- AC adapter. On the downside, neither the system nor the dock has an HDMI connector for mating it with a large-screen monitor (as is the case with HP's HDX Pavilion 9203 notebook).