The first one that was sent to me must have been tossed around on the truck or somewhere along the route to my home. I sent it back in exchange for another one. The 2nd one arrived quicker than I thought it would. I was happy about that. This one, #2, I took it out of the box, like I did the first one, and, low and behold, it was very very good. I own an old 1938 Royal model O, the thing is like a tank, solid and can be pounded on for hours when writing. This new one, is solid, and I can hammer on it without much concern. The words on the page are clear and dark, both red and black. I got it because my two granddaughters typed on the antique one, they respected it, but I thought next time they are over they can type on the new one, and God forbid if they break it at least it's not an antique. I like it. The Classic gives me the same satisfaction of manual typing I got before I switched to computers. It's worth it. Be critical when yours arrives, put it through its paces immediately and type away for hours. If you get a lemon, send it back, it was no hassle. And in a couple of weeks after hammering away at this one if it breaks down, I'll exchange it until I get one that is built the way manual typewriters are supposed to be built, for use, a lot of use. It's worth Enjoy.

You have to press really hard to get the ink to be fairly dark on the paper. I will say that the actual quality of the material is very good and high. It is heavy and appears to be well crafted. The only issue is one of our keys were duplicated (i.e. we had two of the same keys). Luckily it was not a key that is often used. We did contact support who advised us to return it to amazon and order another one. We did not do this as the key does not bother us too much.

I bought this for my 10 year old daughter for Christmas. She asked for an "old fashioned" typewriter. I wasn't sure what I was going to be getting considering some of the reviews but I am impressed. This thing is the real deal. I am in my forties and I took a proper typing class in highschool on a manual typewriter like this and can also remember having one of these at my grandmother's house.

It's obviously not as smooth as typing on an electric word processor (which feels much like the computers of today) but this is a functional working manual typewriter. It's solid and feels well made.

You won't be typing "War and Peace" on this thing (if you type too fast, the letter keys can get in the way of each other and get stuck) but for a letter or craft project, this will do the job.

My wife likes the typewriter and prefers it over the computer.

Please see photograph for typed review.