Further Thoughts:

First up DanJ great account, my initial box opening was pretty much identical, thanks!

I did have one strange occurrence last night: The PE froze up on me while sleeping and would not wake until I hit the reset pinhole. It came back without protest and has come back from stand by several times successfully since then, so not too worried about it, but it is hard to ignore ANY little quirks in new technology.

The more I handle the unit the more I like the weight and feel of it, the hinge is nice and stiff, but not the "I'm new" stiff, but feels more of the " I was designed this way on purpose" stiffness. Which of course is both essential and welcomed in a product relying on it so heavily. Of course only time will tell as to its real durableness.

The speaker embedded in that hinge is actually surprisingly good. Its clear if a bit tinny, and does a fair job reproducing pretty complex music, if only that the notes on the low end are present, but of course you will not feel them. This speaker overall is a plus in my book, I will not be using it THAT often to be honest, but to know that it is there is certainly nice perk. While it is far and away better than every other mobile phone speaker I have heard, and as good as some newer, mid-low to low end laptop speakers, it is not the ideal solution. The volume is satisfactory and even when turned up there was no distortion to speak of on the tracks I used to test: Jazz Christmas tracks, Harry Connick Jr., Ellis Marsalis, Marlon Jordon. Some Nightmares on Wax for the electronic selections and my girl Sade for some Soul R&B/Vocal. That girl can make ANY speaker sound fine! Finally I listened to some Israel and New Breed for more R&B with a Gospel flavor, and Choir backing, it was all clear and crisp, again not really any warmth to speak of or any bass, but again a nice option to have if I can listen to music and have NO other options available, it more than allows for the job to get done, but closer to the unit you can actually ENJOY your tunes over that speaker (to some small degree). The fact that you can start a music selection and then go and do other things within the OS, while not new to this type of device, is always welcome. One small note here, when waking the machine up, manipulating any menu buttons or the first press of the volume button while music is playing a slight electronic "pop" can be heard, THAT one is a bit more disconcerting, and I will be watching it closer.

A quick aside on my music files, I use NO mp3 compressed audio, I only take archival quality rips of my music, the files are of course huge, but I cannot stand the depressed, compressed sound that is MP3, so your mileage may vary, depending on the level of compression of your music, or lack thereof.

I have been able to see some stuttering within the stock OS speaking of that multitasking, and not just when music was playing in the background, nothing earth shattering, but noticeable lag when the screen pull down animations start, in a few places. Browsing both on the stock and the somewhat limited Opera mini 5.1 is pretty straightforward. Opera though full screen defaults to HUGE blocky images, but this can be adjusted somewhat within that software, and on my wi-fi at least, it seems a bit behind the stock browser in terms of raw speed, again no deal breaker, but worth mentioning. It will stay on the unit if but for the option, and in case they get around to enabling that wonderful sync feature I can get at all my bookmarks that I maintain an opera install on my desktop expressly for.

SD performance was pretty transparent, I took a test card right out of my now boxed and shelved Instinct and popped it right in. No fanfare, but music and all pics pulled right up! For a non android device (who knows WHAT OS that phone was running?) I was impressed, it read ALL my song data as created on my pc, and grouped my pics correctly! I even popped the card in my EVO and grabbed a few shots in retro camera which makes its own folder, and when back in the PE, Voila! it found the extra folder and happily displayed all content. That is a plus!

A word about the App market or lack thereof: I am baffled on a consumer level as to why Google has not capitalized on the non phone app market scene, but from a Company line perspective I at least understand their sticking to what they said they would do. Having said that, yes I love the app store on my phone. Also I do not miss it on the PE, with Entourage's own store and then access via the forums to no less than TWO others, I in no way feel "left out" other than the need of a higher version of android for some of the apps (Which I will not add to the cries for here, by the way) direct downloading of APK's and these two markets have me with more choices than I will ever really need, so I am more than satisfied there!

I have to run out this early afternoon so I will take the EE on its first sojourn with me, might as well get it used to its new life on the go! A note on the music, no I have not paired it with my BT headphones yet or listened through my TWO other sets of earphones that I use on the road, one in ear bud with increased Bass (Sony) and a pair of Samsung standard in ear, non bud for when I need to hear the world around me. My bag will be cleared for PE and it will take its place among all my other gear and I will utilize these tools in their intended environment.

More to come on setting up and using the unit out in the wild, the journal and e-reader out in the open, and if I am feeling daring...connecting to an open wi-fi network later on!