Pentium 4 vs. Pentium M processors

[leeym]

I'm looking to buy a new laptop, and see a huge difference in clock speeds between the new Pentium M processrors vs. the Pentium 4 processors. Why is this?

I heard that the Pentium M consumes less power, therefore it's just as fast as the P4 processor. Is this true at all?

Thoughts?

 

[keebeen]

Pentium M's consume less power and give longer battery life for laptops. They are also rated at lower clock speeds for whatever reason... but a "lower-speed" Pentium M chip will be comparable to to a "higher-speed" P4 chip.

For example, a Pentium M 1.4GHz would be comparable to a P4 2.0GHz or something like that... i don't know if that's really accurate, but you get what i'm trying to say. It's sorta like how the Athlon XP's have lower clock speeds but perform the same as a higher-clocked P4 cpu.