Since you reviewed it recently, I'll assume you used the second-gen Series 9. I've got the first-gen running Linux, and it runs quite well. I can definitely attest to the screen being quite bright, but it is more then good enough for side viewing (although the 1366x768 resolution isn't that great, but usable). At least under Linux the touchpad works perfectly though, much better then any touch pad I've used under windows. Probably the best thing about the first-gen though, is that being a pre-ultrabook, it has removable memory, so I've currently got it ramped up to 16GB.