Movement is along hexrows, and the cost in thrust points to change direction by 60 degrees and the number of hexes that must be travelled between direction changes are proportional to speed. Ships must move a number of hexes equal to their speed each turn, and spend thrust points to change their speed before movement. Ships may face in a direction other than the one in which they are travelling, but can only use thrust if they are facing in the direction of motion or directly opposite it. Not true Newtonian movement, but close enough to be interesting. Movement is sequential by class of ship rather than simultaneous, with initiative rolled for each ship.
Damage is allocated to individual systems and ship structure.
Fighters and anti-fighter weapons have an effective range of only a few hexes, but some capital ship weapons can reach most of the way across the board. Fighter damage allocation is more straightforward than for ships, with boxes marked off sequentially and critical damage taken with every third point of damage. I haven't tried a capital ship duel yet, but hope to this weekend. From what I've heard around the hobby shop, a game with a couple of ships on each side takes no more than an hour or two, but I can't vouch for that myself. The ship counters are attractive, the rulebook is reasonably well laid out, and the ship status displays in the back of the book are easy to copy without destroying the binding.