10. HP Compaq Nx9420 Support, Continued

As with all of HP's business notebooks, the nx9420 features very good case quality and well-labeled ports and connectors.

The Compaq nx9420 does a great job of labeling its port and connectors

On the left side of the case, you'll find an AC power port, VGA and S-Video outputs, two USB ports, a four-pin Firewire port, a PC card slot and a Smart-Card slot.

The left side of the Compaq nx9420 case

The front of this device is only sparsely populated and presents a clean profile. A 7-in-1 memory card reader is flanked on both sides by loudspeakers. On the right side, you'll find audio inputs and outputs, plus two more USB ports, separated from a gigabit Ethernet interface by a dual-layer LightScribe DVD burner.

Case front with its 7-in-1 memory card reader, status-LEDs, and stereo speakers.

The right side of the Compaq nx9420 case.

This was the only device we tested in this comparison that came equipped with an sensor to adjust display brightness on its 17" LCD to match ambient light conditions automatically. This helps conserve valuable battery power and can squeeze up to ten additional minutes of runtime out of the battery pack.

An ambient light sensor helps conserve battery power

Although earlier HP models put their microphones in an unreasonable (and most useless) location, the microphone in this model is well situated near the upper right of the LCD frame. In our live conversation tests, we were impressed with its excellent voice quality.

The nx9420 offers a multitude of microphone settings