So far, I'm fairly impressed. (See MAJOR main caveat below.) It's not the lightest laptop in the world, but since my main use will be in our travel trailer as we peregrinate now that I'm retired, 6 lbs. isn't really a problem. The screen is 15.4 inches, and VERY easy on the eyes. I wish laptop screens allowed you to increase the res without losing part of the real estate, but that's life I guess. I have it set at the max (1280x800) in order to still see the quick launch bar.

Battery life is about 3 hours. Which will allow me to take it along when Layne's cutting wood, or use it as we travel to somewhere we want to spend some time. I haven't any experience of the wi-fi yet, as there's not anything available here (haven't bought a wireless router yet for my desktop) since I live so far from "civilization".

I like the touchpad. It works fine, though of course a mouse is more familiar, and I have one for use when possible. The touchpad/buttons work VERY well, however, much better than ThinkPad's button setup. The keyboard, while advertised as "full-size" really isn't since it doesn't have a numpad. I feel a bit whacked using it, BECAUSE I use the numpad so much. Otherwise, the feel is excellent and the size is fine once you've used it a bit and got used to where the "other" keys live.

Overall, the quality seems MORE than excellent. All of the components so far have "names" - like Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, etc. (as opposed to the rest of the Gateway/eMachines empire....) Nothing on this laptop feels or looks "flinky, clunky" or cheap. So far, I consider it an OUTSTANDING value at $850 (after a $150 rebate).

MAJOR MAIN CAVEAT: as with so many products any more, the 5405 comes preloaded with WinXP Home. I HATE IT. It made setting up my 2-machine crossover cable connected network impossible until I did some research (you have to have NetBEUI installed on both machines! *sigh* NetBEUI isn't even SUPPORTED any more!) and there are various other things that I just DO NOT LIKE about Home as opposed to Pro. I will be upgrading to XPPro ASAP after the holidays. There should be an option somewhere to replace Home with a REAL Win OS BEFORE you buy the machine....

I'll update the review as I use the machine. Stay tuned!
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Update: I LOVE this machine! Contrary to what I read a couple of places, it is NOT too hot to use on your lap - I sit around on the sofa and run it either on the battery or the adapter and no problem so far: longest run was 5 hours while I played a game, and it was only just warm through my jeans. I would NOT do this bare-legged in the summer though!

I still am finding this is a pretty fast machine (even for Baldur's Gate SOA - the game in question - though I haven't tried NWN yet....) As far as other programs go, it's not giving up a bit to my desktop (which to be fair is 2 years old, but it's not "antique" yet either).

My single caveat and quibble so far is the same one I had in the earlier post: XPHome. I don't like it any better a month on than I did to begin with. It's nowhere near as customizable as Pro, and I like my Windows to look and work as much like 98 as possible (I just don't LIKE the XP look or feel - it's ugly, clunky, juvenile....) and you just can't accomplish that as well in Home as in Pro. Home is still making the mini-net almost impossible to use: some days it works fine, can use both machine each from the other; other days can access one machine but not the other, and it's not always the same one! No rhyme or reason....

And so far, I have had ZERO other problems.
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