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The XO may be brightly colored, but it is immediately clear after using it for just a few minutes that it is no toy. This is partly due to the physical heft of the laptop, something which is not apparent from the photographs. It feels very solid in the hand, and it's pretty obvious that one shouldn't drop it. The fit and finish are excellent. China sometimes gets a bad rap for cheap construction, but the XO manufacturing is first class. Quanta and the rest of the hardware suppliers can be very proud of their work.

Another indication that the XO is no toy is the screen. The dual E-ink/color screen is a wonder. The physical dimensions of the screen are very small, but the resolution is very high, especially in the black-and-white E-ink mode. These 50-something eyes had absolutely no problem reading anything. This is the kind of screen one expects in a very expensive laptop. To have it appear in a sub-$200 laptop is amazing.

The network detection was completely automatic, and worked flawlessly. I had donated/purchased enough laptops via G1G1 to get a pair of laptops, so I was able to test the mesh networking functions. Taking the spirit of the XO to heart, I stayed away from any web sites or online help manuals, and just figured out networking by paying attention to the user interface and playing around. The software interface is elegant and clever. I had no problem figuring out what all the symbols mean (and no, I'm not going to spoil the fun by revealing any spoilers here! It's an XO! Go have fun!).

I have a FON wireless router that hosts both public and private access points. The XO was able to see both APs and connect through them without any problems. With the ears extended, I was able to see access points that were roughly twice as far away as my normal laptop. Amazing.

The applications that come with the XO are all of the "serious/fun" kind. Yes, there are games ... that teach programming. Yes, there are toys ... that teach music composition. And so on, though the entire application suite. Everything exhibits the learn-by-exploring ethos, and is designed to either teach directly, or be used as a tool for learning something else.

Sugar, the desktop shell, deserves a special mention. Together with the dedicated UI keys and the Journal, an application that keeps a running history of everything one does, Sugar is a true innovation in the way applications can be organized, launched, and controlled. That Nigerian education minister who was questioning whether the XO was just some experimental toy can rest easy. The XO's desktop shell has a level of sophistication and simplicity of design that will be copied and emulated in many applications to come. It isn't very often one sees a ground-breaking design.