Up front, it is just a good looking chunk of tech'. The carbon graphite look grey exterior as well as the derived striped effect when opened. The wet look keyboard and backlighting does nothing to diminish this first impression. The screen is also glossy but not to the extent that is acts as a rear view mirror when on, although I have not tested this in full sun yet.
I said in the Pros that the wet look keyboard was a good look, and it is, but it is also a fingerprint magnet. You want it to stay looking good you will need to give it a regular wipe down. The feel of the keyboard is a little springy at first but once you have aclimatised your fingertips to the feel you quickly get used to it. The twin golf ball sized speakers inset above the keyboard are potential particle traps and I find the sound OK while on the road but when using at home the 2.1 speakers or headphones are always the superior option. Lets talk weight, you want an upper body workout this is the notebook for you but then again if you wanted mobility you would be looking at a high end netbook not this. With average use you are going to get a little over three hours away from home be
I recently bought the laptop for my daughter so I could reclaim my own PC and get some time online for myself for once. I am a comparison shopper by nature but for the clearance price of $1,300 I decided to save myself the bother and purchased it straight off the self at my local Retravision. It only has a 2.0Ghz Dual Core which is about a half Ghz behind the bleeding edge pack but by the same token it is also a good $1,000 behind them in price as well.
I would have liked DTV with it but it has an expresscard port on the left side which will do the job for me. The 16.1" screen is clear and vivid with excellent color and contrast right out of the box, after a little tweaking it really shines. While we are talking ports this puppy has more than enough to satisfy the most plug crazed connectivity user.
What attracted me to this machine is that it will do everything I want it to for the next couple of years and maybe a little beyond, I am not going to be running Crysis on it so getting 20+ FPS at high res is not going to be an issue.