Pros: -Second-gen Sandy Bridge! It may only be dual core, but for everything I've pushed it to do, only the GPU has been a bottleneck, which is fantastic. -Very quiet, even when under load for several hours. -Dedicated GT540M; not the best GPU but handles the max 1366x768 res at 60fps for a lot of newer games at medium-high settings. -Very strong wifi receiver. Detects about 30 different networks around me from inside my room, without even holding it near my window! -Pretty light weight given the size. I've handled smaller cutting-edge laptops at work that were heavier than this. I haven't redone the Windows 7 installation yet, but even with all the bloatware, the boot time is usually around 20 seconds and launching applications/doing anything is very responsive and quick to load, which I didn't expect considering the 5400RPM HDD. Even searches in the start menu generally take about half a second to display results. I can only imagine the speed if it were using an SSD...

Cons: The mousepad buttons are covered by one solid piece of plastic, which feels awkward when pressing on it. It also does not support holding both the right and left mouse buttons at the same time, so if a game requires it (e.g. ads+fire) you will need an external mouse or controller. No middle mouse is included so to have the functionality you are better off setting the two-finger tap to this. The screen appears to be 6bit rather than the standard 8bit, resulting in over 16million colors less than normal (262,144). This means dithering and color banding in games, which is very noticeable in darker areas. You can at least adjust the contrast ratio to reduce this effect however. I haven't tested connecting an external monitor to see if the color banding goes away. The horizontal DPI for the monitor is a little low, so if you sit close enough you can see/feel the black area between the pixels. If you hate jaggies, be sure to sit back a bit, as this also makes the pixels feel "fat".

Overall Review: Based on other reviews, it looks like Acer has fixed the spacebar issue with the new stock, as mine works perfectly no matter how I hit it. I don't see the mouse pad offset as an issue either, as once I adjusted I no longer hit it accidentally (it's centered with the spacebar instead of factoring in the arrow keys, which is still acceptable). The USB3 port also seems to be incorrectly colored. The manual states that it should be the blue USB port, and there is a USB port colored blue, but it's actually the USB2 port! The one right next to it is USB3, so it's not a major issue. Cons/quirks aside, I am completely happy with this purchase. For the price, the build quality is still pretty good and the internals are something to behold. It simply gets the job done, and if you're under a budget, this is not a laptop you'd soon regret.

Pros: - 4 DPI settings - 3 extra buttons (backward, forward, double-left-click) - Smooth, easy to click scroll-wheel - Comfortable design - Plenty of slick bottom pads - Braided USB cable - Plug & Play

Cons: - No DPI indicator - No included software for configuration - Blue lights can't be turned off (a tad bright on the right side) - Backward/forward side buttons are soft; prone to accidental presses

Overall Review: Unboxed it not too long ago. Simple packaging and an instruction pamphlet you don't really need. Sensitivity is high and only goes higher with the other DPI settings, but that's a good thing in my opinion. Just lower the speed in your OS mouse options or in-game. Honestly wish the front-left extra button was a single action rather than a double-click macro. While the backward and forward inputs can be modified with a script, you can't so easily remap a double-click. Overall the mouse is fairly solid. If you can grab it for $10, it is definitely worth it. I managed to get it for even less during a Newegg Flash sale and I am quite pleased.

Pros: Easy to open packaging, easily snapped into the mobo, disabled the onboard sound, booted up the machine to see it gracefully grabbing the driver for it on its own, and presto, better sound quality than the onboard sound I've been plagued with for so long.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: Windows 7 64bit; hopefully will install just as fine on Windows XP 64bit once the OS gets installed on my new HDD.