Pros: Excellent price (I purchased it on sale for $300). I plan to use it for simple things like word processing, web browsing, watching videos, and some light (old school) gaming. For these purposes it has performed admirably. Looks rather slick when closed. It has an optical drive, unlike some of the similar priced units I looked at - convenient if I need to load any older software I have on disc.

Cons: The keyboard layout takes some getting used to. Small arrow keys. The Touchpad is very sensitive, and I keep clicking randomly around the screen by accident - the Touchpad can be disabled and tweaked however. By default the keyboard function keys (F1-12) are only only accessible by holding down the (fn) key - pressing FN+f2 to rename something is a pain, but this isn't a huge con because it can be switched in the bios. There are some truly bizarre macro keys on this - why would I want a dedicated key for social networks? Also, next to the arrow keys on either side of the up arrow are two keys that print money signs by default - very easy to hit by accident, owing to the small size of the arrow keys and I don't understand their purpose.

Overall Review: Like many others, I don't like Windows 8, but this isn't an OS review. Probably obvious, but it is worth noting that this is not a touchscreen laptop, which makes the Windows 8 start screen even more extraneous . I should comment about the size and weight, if only to say I don't have much of a basis of comparison, since this replaced a 12 year old dell laptop which weighed around 9 pounds - this unit is certainly light and thin by contrast. Unlike other users here, my laptop worked perfectly out of the box, no hardware issues whatsoever! I have only had this for less than a month, so I cannot speak for the longevity, and it also seems to be out of stock now, but I am satisfied with this purchase overall and would recommend it as long as you aren't looking for a desktop replacement.