I found many things to like about the Ethos. The bright, 18.4-inch 1080p display makes working with documents easy on the eyes. Color fidelity and saturation were good, both on photo images and video material. Typing on the keyboard is a positive experience for the most part, and the built-in Blu-ray/DVD combo player's movie playback is among the best we've seen in a laptop.

Those are the high points.

The Ethos employs an intriguing gimmick: a detachable touchpad with a built-in battery (which recharges when it's docked.) Make no mistake, it is a gimmick. As a trackpad, it's terrible. The default sensitivity setting forces you to swipe multiple times just to move the cursor across the screen. I tried repeatedly to use multitouch gestures on the touchpad, but I couldn't get them to work. At times, the touchpad refused to respond at all, even when docked.

The touchpad has a small, soft button that changes modes so that it can act as a remote media controller when detached, but I rarely lean back from an 18.4-inch display enough to need a remote. If you connect the Ethos to your , you might find this gizmo worthwhile, but it's almost useless in its primary role as a pointing device, so you'd best get a mouse.

The keyboard is much better, with a fairly clean layout, though the arrow keys are tiny. The keyboard's tactile feedback and response are pretty good, too.