Pros: Hardware seems generally good. It does what it's supposed to do; see the specs if you're not clear on what it's supposed to do. Nothing has failed. The red light in the keyboard is cute and occasionally actually useful (for typing in the dark). I can do my work. I can play my games. I understand I'm supposed to hate Windows 8 but actually I'm kind of liking it. I mean it does get in the way occasionally and I'd probably like Windows 7 better, but it's not that big a deal, and I'm usually somewhat picky about these things.

Cons: The screen resolution is too high compared to the screen size, for text-focused uses. It's fine for games (without too much tiny text) and movies. I think I won't get another 1920x1080 laptop unless the screen is much bigger. I have to magnify my text with a Windows setting, which works fine but slightly blurs everything and defeats the purpose of getting such a high-resolution monitor. The touchpad is terribly flawed, almost to the point of being broken. I dunno, I guess this kind of touchpad is normal these days? In that case then I guess many laptops have bad touchpads. But whatever. Anyway there are big problems with it: First, it has buttons under the touch-sensitive surface. This sucks initially, if you're not used to it, because it stops you from knowing that you do actually have a right mouse button (in the lower-right corner of the pad), albeit a hidden one. It sucks MUCH MORE later on because it stops you from clicking the pixel you want. The button is under the part of the pad that moves the mouse, so you can't click without moving the mouse. In other words, you can't click on what you want to click on. You can only approximate. Terrible, terrible design. Also there is a third secret mouse button in the pad that seems to be more of a "logical" button than a physical one--it simulates a left click when you tap on the pad, even if you didn't press the mechanical button beneath. This is redundant (since there's already a button), and it interferes with the other buttons. You can tap gently on the right button... and get a left click, because of this. It's idiotic. You can even trigger this phantom click function by resting your hands on the laptop frame while typing and not even touching the pad. This happens to me often. It's just pathetic that any manufacturer ever uses this kind of touchpad. The thing is obviously terrible. But I only took one star off for it because the pad does at least work in a pinch, and because you can get around it altogether (if you've got a mousing surface handy) by plugging in a real mouse.

Overall Review: The laptop is flawed but it works and is basically pretty nice (assuming it isn't gonna fall apart anytime soon). I don't regret buying it.