I purchased this as a starter uke for my niece. I wanted a decent playing instrument without investing too much money, considering I don't even know if she will maintain any interest.This ukulele looks great. It is a Koa wood laminate with a very nice glossy finish. It also has decent grover tuners. Unfortunately, it doesn't play well because a few of the frets are set improperly resulting in places on the neck where the string bottoms out on the next fret. It is borderline unplayable in it's present condition.I have consulted with my local guitar tech who generally advises that every new stringed instrument can benefit from a proper set-up - especially the lower end instruments like this one. He indicated it would cost about $50 to adjust the frets, bridge and nut to get the uke into nice playing condition. So, rather than hassle with returning it and hoping the next one is better, I am opting for the professional set-up on the one I already received. This all reinforces my opinion that it is definitely optimum to purchase any instrument in person, if possible.My only basis for comparison on ukes is the one I own, which is a solid Koa (not laminated wood) tenor made by Cordoba (about as inexpensive as solid koa gets at $350). Compared to that, the tone on the OU5 is just ok. It is a little dull sounding without much sustain or projection.I looked at other ukes at my local music store in the $100 range and all were flawed in some way or another, so even with it's limitations I still feel the OU5 is a decent deal. The fact that it is very attractive to the eye will hopefully make it more appealing to my niece.In summary, I would say in the $100 to $150 price range this is a pretty good option. Make an effort to buy in person, as there is so much variation between different copies of the exact same make and model instrument. Also, if you can afford it, I would recommend considering moving up a couple hundred to a solid wood instrument.UPDATE: After getting the $50 dollar set-up, this uke is now very playable and sounds a lot better. It has better sustain and decent tone. It almost makes me want to upgrade to 4 stars...but not quite. If it sounded this good out of the box I'd go with 4 stars, so, if you're careful and get a good one, you should be quite happy with this uke for the price.