carbon fiber is only strong one direction. if this notebook were dropped harrd enough on the corner it would fray the weaving at the point of impact. however the amount or force it would take to do that woul be substantial and would be unlikely. just a lil technical fun fact.

Have owned one of these for 1 yr 3 months - it is a superb machine and genuinely great value. The screen resolution is more like a 20" screen than 15.4".

2 Flaws:

- Unusable bluetooth mouse - (VAIO bluetooth mouse works well)
- Fan is on all the time - for a laptop, moderately loud

For the record - this machine runs beautifully with Win XP Pro x64 edition, 2Gb, a Turion ML-44 and a quicker HDD (I used a Seagate Momentus 7200.1 - but better alternatives are probably the new 7200.2 or Hitachi travelstar). Its the most stable platform I've ever used.

I have the acer 4005 ferrari what crap, the system overheats in minutes, there is nothing in the bios for fan control. crashes during any gaming or video compilation.

I'm considerring purchasing this model after having very good luck with an Acer 300 for 3+ years. It really looks good. Think I'll go for it for sure now.

Thanks, very thorough review & test.