Hewlett Packard Compaq Business Notebook nc4000 (DG988A)

Pros: ultra portable, SD reader,
Cons: low Battery life, external DVD drive

Good: I bought this notebook from ecost.com for a little bit over a thousand dollars. I've been using it for about 3 months and loving it! The design is awesome. You can choose to use both touch pad or pointing stick. Decent processor speed. WiFi works great! I only see ONE little speaker located on the left side and not sure what kind of soundcard is installed but the quality is pretty good. (max volume is a little bit too low but not a big issue)

Bad: [Problems I encountered]
1. The two USB ports are too closed to each other. When using a USB thumb drive, the other USB port becomes unusable.
2. Battery life is very bad. Mine last less than 2 hours
It also gets SUPER HOT where the battery located underneath this notebook. First I was afraid it will be overheated but that never happened. (I usually have it turned on for over 3-4 hours with power cord)
3. WiFi can't be used with wireless mouse. When using a wireless mouse, WiFi will be disrupted and lost signal.

Pros: None
Cons: 1. Poor Design 2. Port Replicator 3. Wireless card poor quality

The NC4000 with the advanced port replicator or the standard port replicator is the poorest quality setup Compaq / HP has ever produced. HP decided to produce a "one size fits all" port replicators. The Advanced Port Repluicator is 1 1/2 times the size of the notebook and the rail that is supposed to protect the back of the laptop blocks the USB port needed to connect the external USB bay (the external unit requires power from the sister port to the USB port).

The notebook used as a stand alone unit is OK at best. I purchased this to replace the Compaq EVO N200 with port replicator and am sadly disappointed. I have returned all but the opened one that HP will not accept back.

I feel this is just a sign of things to come - Compaq quality is now being replaced with HP's inferior quality.