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Rick Rizner, John GoddardIntel's power-conserving Pentium M processor helps boost this basic IBM notebook's battery life. Equipped with a 1.3-GHz/400-MHz chip, the ThinkPad R40 lasted a little over 4 hours in our tests, the best of the three R Series notebooks we've tested to date.The R40's excellent keyboard has an extrafirm feel, yet the keys also have more travel and are quieter than those of most other notebooks. Like most ThinkPads, our test model of the R40 came with dual pointing devices, an eraserhead and a touchpad, each with its own set of mouse buttons. The mouse buttons depress just as deeply as the keys do, creating welcome feedback--unlike the stiff, shallow buttons we typically see on competing models. IBM bundles a variety of eraserhead caps with the notebook, one to suit every user's tactile preference, from nubby to soft. Finally, IBM's comprehensive electronic user manual is unique for its dedicated launch button and step-by-step animated tutorials that lead you through operations such as upgrading the hard drive.You can configure the ThinkPad R40 to handle a variety of tasks: The modular bay accepts a multitude of hot-swappable optional devices, such as a secondary 40GB hard drive, a floppy drive, a secondary battery, a Zip drive, or a cradle for a numeric keypad or for IBM's PDA, the WorkPad C500 Series. Our R40 came with an 8X DVD- ROM and 24X/10X/24X CD-RW combination drive. IBM placed the modular bay's release on the side of the notebook, where you can easily pop devices out with one hand--useful if you need to swap drives in tight spots such as an airline seat. (Most notebooks have the bay release on the bottom, and many take two hands to work.)