Excellent Performer! I received this vacuum cleaner as a gift, after I conducted much personal research to determine the best vacuum to suit my needs. What I was looking for was a lightweight, relatively powerful machine to clean the low-pile rugs and laminate floors on the upper level of my home. I was tired of lugging the upright upstairs to vacuum my rugs, and Swiffering my laminate floors (a Swiffer is great in theory, but when you have a long-haired cat and a labrador retriever, a Swiffer just can’t gather up all of their fur and dander, and then you still have to vacuum the pile of debris when you are finished.This Panasonic was just the thing I needed, and for a decent price.The Good:~ Not very loud (slightly quieter than my upright Hoover Windtunnel), which is great when vacuuming a room full of hard surfaces (a.k.a., an echo-box)~ Great cleaning power (considering its size, weight, and purpose; it pulls up way more dust than a Swiffer sweeper, and with much less effort)~ Retractable cord (could be a little longer, but I have a lot of outlets in my house, and luckily I only have to change the cord to a new outlet once because of their wall locations in relation to the rooms I need to clean)~ Edge grabber attachment (I never thought I would care, but this is great! It vacuums vertically, so it dusts your trim right next to the floor, where dust tends to kick up against the baseboard – also helps clean low wall vents)~ Easy to clean (the filter detaches from the canister, and has a great little slider on it that you can use to dislodge the dust – and it includes a little brush to get the last bits the slider doesn’t dislodge)~ Transfers easily from hard surfaces to rugs (just keep on vacuuming, and change surfaces as many times as you like – no changing attachments)~ Won’t scratch hard surfaces (the vacuum head has padding on it, and a tiny roller-piece to help it move around easily)~ Easily change attachments (it comes with a crevice tool, which I’ve used for my couch – quick to change out while the vacuum is still on)~ Attractive, for a household appliance~ Easy to carry up and down stairs for stair cleaning; easy to lift if you want to vacuum ceiling corners or tops of cabinetsThe Meh:~ If the cord were 20 feet instead of 16 feet, I’d be overjoyed – but honestly, it’s not really a problem, just a feature of my upright that spoiled me.~ Emptying the canister can be kind of annoying – it’s awkward to open it without spilling the contents, but once you get used to its quirky styling, it’s really no big deal.~ Like some other reviewers mentioned, it does have a strange static attraction – I find myself vacuuming the vacuum on occasion when I notice my dog’s hair clinging to it. But it obviously doesn’t interfere with function, and it’s not THAT much static (it doesn’t shock you when you touch it, for instance) – so, not a major deficiency.~ This thing has a considerable amount of power, but it’s definitely better at hard surfaces (tile, laminate, hardwood, vinyl, etc) than carpeted ones. I clean my cat’s “tree” (which has shag and low-pile carpet on it) and our flatwoven rugs with little trouble – but I imagine I’ll bring the upright back upstairs at least a few times each year to really suck the dirt out.The Bad:Nothing to report here – I can’t speak to longevity (yet), but it’s been going strong for over a month now, and I see no signs of defects, loss of power, breakage, etc.Overall, this is a great vacuum, and one I think will last me a long time – though, honestly, even if it only lasts five years, I’ll be happy to fork out another benjamin to have this light, maneuverable, hard-surface cleaner back in my house.*****UPDATE: I have to say, after several months of use, I am still very pleased with this vacuum’s performance; however, as is the way of things, the “bugs” have come out of the woodwork with the passage of time. I can’t say that any of my discoveries would classify as “bad” – most likely still in the “meh” category from above.~ Its performance on carpets is really much lesser than on hard surfaces. I find that it can’t pull pet hair and lodged debris out of flatwoven or shag-type carpeting. However, it does well enough that the carpet looks clean – I just know that I have to wash the rugs or bring up the upright vacuum to do a true deep cleaning on carpeted surfaces.~ The container where all of the debris end up has some nooks and crannies that fill up with dust and hair, which does NOT impact the functionality – it just looks gross (it might be possible to clean these areas with some disassembly, but I’m not that brave).~ The little rolling wheel that allows the floor attachment to roll over all types of surfaces is getting scratched from rolling over debris – so it’s not a perfectly smooth piece of plastic…