Another group of indicators is placed together with a Power button (it’s highlighted with two blue LEDs) near the right display hinge and is stretched along the battery leftwards. This group includes:

• Drives Activity indicator (it shows that the hard or optical drive is being accessed)
• Num Lock indicator
• Caps Lock indicator
• Scroll Lock indicator

Symmetrically to this group, but near the left hinge, there are instant-launch buttons (from left to right):

• Touchpad lock button (you may want to lock the touchpad if you’re using an external mouse to avoid pressing it unintentionally; when you hit this button, the appropriate indicator lights up while the highlighting between the touchpad’s buttons goes out)
• Button to launch ASUS’ exclusive Power4 Gear+ utility which offers several power modes that vary in such parameters as CPU frequency, screen brightness, Windows’ power management scheme, etc. Three Power4 Gear+ modes are available when the notebook is connected to the wall socket and seven when it works on its battery.

Power4 Gear+

• Bluetooth button (enables/disables the Bluetooth interface; the status of the interface is reported by an appropriate indicator)
• Internet button (launches your default Web-browser)
• Wireless LAN button (enables the wireless network interface)

The notebook’s left panel offers the following (from left to right):

• Kensington lock
• 15-pin D-Sub connector for an external monitor
• 4-pin FireWire port labeled “DV”, meaning that it can be used for high-end digital video equipment
• IrDA port
• 26-pin ExpressCard/54 connector

• Optical drive with an activity indicator, eject button and an emergency ejection hole