Pros: This is a solid computer. Firewire and eSata are a definite plus. The screen is very nice. The sound is second to none (in laptops). The specs are competitive (4GB of ram, 2 GHz Core 2 Duo, 320 GB HDD).

Cons: Placement of ports are a personal preference. For me, they were in the worst places possible. -Disliked having the power on the side (prefer rear of laptop). -Disliked having headphone jack in the front--so much that I bought a sound card (ExpressCard) just so I could have it on the side. Fusion finish (a.k.a Fingerprint finish) is maddening. I read other reviews that mentioned the finish and dismissed them as being excessively nit picky. After an hour of using it, I loathed the finish too. It picks (and holds on to) fingerprint / smudges like a 4-year-old vs. a glass window.

Overall Review: Despite the annoyance of the finish and port placement, this is a great computer.

Pros: Inexpensive...until it breaks.

Cons: Purchased three--all were dead within a couple months. The sad thing is that two of them were unused backups that I didn't test until the first one died. One of the problem that I could sort of work with was a weak spot in the cable that causes them to have no picture unless the cable is bent at exactly the right angle. Note, this is out of the box, not after being used. Another problem that I can't work with is it shutting off intermittently. It would power cycle itself every ~ 45 seconds and then work for a couple of hours.

Overall Review: Contacted support to exchange the defective items. They asked for proof of purchase information. I sent it. Didn't hear back from them. Contacted them and sent it again. Finally just gave up.

Pros: Nice, glossy display.

Cons: After a couple of months, the monitor refused to turn on. Had to pay for shipping the monitor back to acer (shipping a large monitor was expensive and a hassle). When we received the monitor back, the outer plastic was extremely scuffed.

Pros: Inexpensive

Cons: Proprietary USB cable, freezes, loses data, controls are awkwardly placed.

Overall Review: The player is constantly freezing and requires holding the power button until it turns off. After a couple of days of using the player, it suddenly lost all my music. The drive, however, said it was still full and I couldn't re-add songs. No files were visible in the player or windows. Finally after formatting the drive a couple times (didn't work the first time), I could again put songs on it. It also didn't seem to deal with pictures so well. Some would display, some wouldn't. Not that I really wanted to use a 1-inch rectangular screen for viewing pictures, but it's disappointing when you never know what is or isn't going to work on it. This is subjective, of course, but I don't care for the placement of the controls. I also don't care for the navigation / menu system. Erratic behavior and poor design (personal taste) interferes with this being used for anything but a backup mp3 player. Inexpensive, but would rather have put the money towards some other device.