Next to the second group of system indicators, there are an Audio DJ button which allows playing CDs without booting the OS up (you just attach the computer to a power source, press the Player on/off button and insert an audio disc into the optical drive) and the player controls (Play, Pause, Previous track and Next track). Each notebook has four stereo speakers; one pair is located on the sides of the front panel and the other pair is above the keyboard next to the quick-launch buttons. The speakers give out a loud sound, especially required for watching movies and listening to music.

The full-size keyboards are made of opaque (A4B00L) and translucent (A4S00G) black plastic, and this is the only difference between them. The functional keys are labeled blue (press and hold [Fn] to use them). The Page Up, Page Down, Home and End keys form a vertical column on the right; there is a numeric pad as well as two Windows keys available. The Insert, Delete, Print Screen and Pause keys are in the top row, next to the functional keys. The keyboard is overall handy and comfortable.

The touchpad is accompanied with two buttons that replace the mouse’s left and right buttons, but regrettably it doesn’t have an additional scroll button or a joystick. You can use the right side of the touchpad for scrolling; there’re special marks on it for that purpose.

There’s nothing on the front panels of the notebooks, save for a lid latch and the above-mentioned stereo speakers.

The following components are found on the left panel:

• Headphones output;
• Microphone input;
• Two USB ports;
• Power connector;
• Battery lock;
• Kensington lock.

The following items are available on the right panel of the notebooks:

• DVD-RW optical drive (the eject button is sunken rather too deep and is not easily pressed);
• PC Card slot (for one card of type I or II);
• Card-reader (SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro);
• FireWire port;
• IrDA port;
• Two USB ports.

And these components are located on the rear panel:

• RJ-11 modem connector;
• RJ-45 LAN connector;
• D-Sub connector for the external monitor;
• 25-pin parallel port;
• Expansion port (for an additional external port replicator);
• TV-Out port.

On the bottom of the notebooks, there’s a big cover for the entire size of the bottom with a pocket for the owner’s visiting card. You can remove the cover by undoing four screws and shifting it off. Under the cover you see two memory slots, a hard disk drive and a miniPCI WLAN card, components of the cooling systems, an optical drive bay and a battery cell. This engineering solution helps to replace or upgrade any component of the notebook quickly and easily.

The following table compares the communicational capabilities of the two notebooks:

As for the accessories you get with the notebooks, we received our samples of the A4B00L and A4S00G with just the basic things like power adapters (quite large and heavy), power cords with plugs of various types, CDs with drivers and utilities and programs for playing DVDs, editing videos and creating slideshows.