[1] The color LCDs of the W-100 series WideNotes—custom designed by Sharp Corporation in Japan[2]—measures 9.5 by 5.6 inches, giving it a roughly 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio.

When plugged into an external monitor, the W-100 series WideNotes can display a virtual desktop up to 1024 by 768 pixels (XGA, 4:3 aspect ratio).

Instead, Sharp sold these as external units, plugged into the side of the machines, with only the floppy drive being included with the purchase of the laptop; both could not be used at once.

PC World's Laurianne McLaughlin rated the W-100T's performance high, appreciated the wider screen and found it price competitive with other subnotebooks, while finding reservation with the external drive design and mediocre battery life.

[1] Home Office Computing concurred, with Jonathan K. Matzkin calling the W-100T's LCD outstanding: "We stared at it for hours without experiencing the eyestrain that lesser notebook screens inevitably cause".

[12] Simson L. Garfinkel, writing in The Boston Globe, called the W-100T better than Hewlett-Packard's OmniBook 800 subnotebook: "It's got a bigger screen, better feel in its keyboard, a built-in wrist-pad, and costs substantially less", although he found the found the communications drivers flawed in their inability to handle modem, serial, and infrared communications at the same time.

Writing in CNET, Brian Nadel called the machine limited by its 1.5 GB RAM ceiling and lack of built-in gigabit Ethernet but praised the brightness and fidelity of the screen, battery life, and range of its Wi-Fi antenna.

[16] Carla Thornton of PC World criticized the keyboard and trackpad, calling the latter "wiggly and cheap, with a slightly rattly keystroke" and the latter "uncomfortably small".

Like Nadel, she praised the battery life and called the machine overall "easy to tote" and "peppy enough" for most applications, albeit "no speed demon".

[22] PC Magazine also praised the long battery life and screen but called the choice of drives a limiting factor in its versatility and criticized the lack of a FireWire port.

[23] Digital Trends's Aaron Colter compared the laptop's aesthetic to Apple's PowerBook G4 and concluded in a mixed assessment that, "[o]verall, the M4000 WideNote should be a good example of how a company can take a highly standardized design and still make it stick out in a crowd, but the lack of customization and basic features sends this notebook to the bottom of the class".