Despite popular belief, not all computers are created equal.

In fact, there are many that are more unequal than others.

For instance, take Panasonic's W4 Let's Note Lite notebook computer ($2,800 for the Japanese model and $2,100 for the one being marketed in the United States). On the surface, they look and feel the same. But, in reality, they're as different as salt and pepper.

The Japanese model I played with came with a 120 gigabyte hard drive, 1.5 gigabytes of RAM and a multi-format DVD writer. Unfortunately, the U.S. model maxes out with a 40 gigabyte hard drive, a gigabyte of memory and a DVD-ROM/CD burner. There's also a slight weight difference --- the Japanese model was 2.6 pounds and the one sold in the U.S. weighs 2.8.

The Japanese model also lists a battery life of nearly double its U.S. counterpart (11 hours versus 6, which translates to 6 versus 3 in "real hours"), has more color options and has a more advanced chipset. I'm told that the Japanese model also has a Core Solo 1.06 gigahertz processor instead of the Pentium M, but the one I tested had a Pentium M 1.3 gigahertz processor in it.

Panasonic has since replaced the W4 with a newer model --- the W5 --- in Japan, but is still marketing the W4 as "new" stateside. Although, except for the processor, I can see very little difference between the two models.

Fortunately there are places such as Dynamism.com where we can find and purchase these Orient-only gems. Based in Chicago, the folks at Dynamism (and other places like it) import and sell computers and other electronic gadgets as they're released overseas, many of them dwarfing their U.S. siblings in features and capabilities. Also, you can find a few choice items that are not yet available in the U.S. (such as the Panasonic W5).

So, what do the two versions of the W4 have in common? Here are the key features:

• It's one of the lightest and toughest notebook computers available today.
• Its CD/DVD drive is built into the top of the case. A cover pops up giving you access to the drive instead of the drive popping out of the side of the case as we've seen in most notebooks.
• It comes with two USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet port, an SD card slot, a standard PC card slot, a VGA port for an external monitor, a serial port and an RJ-11 port for an external modem.
• Built-in 802.11b wireless network detection and support.
• A small, built-in monaural speaker.

More information on the Panasonic W4 and the new W5 can be found at www.dynamism.com.

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