Let me give you a little background on myself and my experience with Sauder Ready-To-Assemble (RTA)products. I was first introduced to the Sauder brand when I worked in the electronics department of a major department store in 1995. It was not only my job to know and understand the product but it was also my job to assemble the floor samples that we would receive. I've always appreciated Sauder for their commitment to quality and customer satisfaction and over the years I honestly have had mixed experiences with some of their products.
What sets Sauder apart in general is that they make really good looking furniture that's easy to assemble and usually lasts for a long time. I have had issues recently with Sauder's Wal Mart Mainstays line (a TV stand, a dresser and a corner desk) but if it has the Sauder brand name on it, you'll usually do fine.
This particular unit far exceeded my expectations. First if you look around, you'll notice that that the price Wal Mart has it for is about half of the MSRP. I always get concerned with that because although I like to save money, I always wonder why a current model's priced has dropped so much. It turned out that I had nothing to worry about.
First let me warn you, ordering site-to-store on this takes a little while... like 2 weeks. Once I picked up the unit (bring a friend... it's bulky and weighs over 100 lbs.), I got it home and opened it up and only discovered one blemish on one of the support walls. The great thing about Sauder is that if you have any problems, call them and they'll send you replacement parts immediately with no questions asked, sometimes overnight. This applies to their 5 year warranty as well. If you need a replacement part over the next 5 years, just call them and they'll send it to you free of charge. In this case, I didn't bother as the blemish would be covered by the door.
All of the parts were clearly labeled except the hardware which is kind of odd because all of the products I've purchased recently from Sauder have included individually packaged hardware parts that were labeled with their part letter/number. These didn't but it really wasn't that big of a deal because the scale illustrations (that were mostly accurate) filled in the gaps in case of confusion.
The wood with this unit is striking for RTA. It's very solid and has a beautiful black finish with a very nice faux woodgrain. The hardware was the best I've used in years, incorporating the plastic/metal cam locks as opposed to the cheap metal ones that I have been seeing lately.
The hinges are simple two-piece hinges that work and fit perfectly unlike the overly complex spring-loaded nightmares that RTA manufacturers have been using for years, now. The best part about the hinges is that you can install them with the doors onto the unit by yourself (without help) and easily align them perfectly.
The instructions (as is par for the course for Sauder) are incredibly easy to follow and all of the parts fit perfectly and securely without a wiggle or a wobble and Sauder smartly enginneered this with reinforced pieces in all of the spots where it needed it the most. The most striking thing to note is that this is the only upright unit I've ever seen that is designed to hold heavy items and doesn't come with or recommend the use of a wall anchor. It simply doesn't need it as it's that stable.
The unit is beautiful when assembled but some people may be turned off by it's compact size coming in at what seems to be a little over five feet. Unless you don't like the way it looks in the space you have, don't let it's diminuitive appearance fool you. The unit is perfectly laid out inside and it's at a perfect height for an average user. This desk is for my wife so I tested it out first and the keyboard tray has a higher clearance for my knees than my personal computer desk has and I'm six feet tall.
Overall, this is probably the best unit I've ever seen from Sauder. It took me, by myself, about 6 hours to assemble it, but to be honest, I wasn't working straight through. I had to wrangle the kids a few times, took an hour to go get lunch, was watching the X-Files and a Mets game during the event and just doing it lazily in general. If I was on the clock doing it like I used to back in the day, it would probably take 2.5 hours tops by myself. With a helper, no longer than an hour.
TIP: Whatever you do DO NOT USE POWER TOOLS TO ASSEMBLE. Sauder furniture is designed so that anyone with basic tools can assemble it. If you use a cordless drill to screw in your fast-cams or screws you will most likely wreck the wood or hardware. Trust me on this one and don't tempt fate. A low-torque cordless screwdriver is fine, however.