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Another great review by Barnacules of Ultimaker 2. He goes trough unboxing, setup, calibration, leveling and first printing. His machine came delivered with on extruder fan broken. The leveling process seems easy with adjustment screws on the bottom of the print bed.

From video description:

The Ultimaker 2
To operate the Ultimaker 2 you don't need any specific technical knowledge. Every part has been redesigned to create one of the highest performing 3D printer available on the market, but also a very reliable one.

Ultimaker 2 specifications
Easy to use and reliable
Designed for non-expert and expert
Larger build envelope
Heated bed
Low cost material
Open source
Just like the Original the Ultimaker 2 will remain open source. We dare to share our knowledge because we believe we can achieve even more when working together.
Easy to use and reliable
To operate the Ultimaker 2 you don't need any specific technological knowledge. With its 49 decibel it's a quiet machine. Because the electronics are bundled the Ultimaker 2 is stable and reliable. With its nice design the Ultimaker 2 is suitable in any working or living interior.
Designed for non-expert and expert
We've made the Ultimaker 2 to be as easy as possible. You don't need to have a huge technological background to understand our printer. At the same time we've developed the printer in a way that it's still interesting for experts to work and create with.
Larger build ratio
We've managed to get an even better print-to-size ratio. This means the printer size has remained the same, and the print envelope became bigger.
Low cost material
Beside the fact that the Ultimaker doesn't use a lot of power, the material you use to print is also low cost. This makes the use of an Ultimaker very affordable.
Layer resolution: up to 20 micron
Build volume: 23 x 22.5 x 20.5 cm
Position precision X Y Z: 12.5 / 12.5 / 5 micron
Print speed: 30 mm/s - 300 mm/s
Travel speed: 30 mm/s - 350 mm/s
Recommended filament diameter: 2.85 mm
Nozzle diameter: 0.4 mm
Stand-alone SD-card printing
WiFi printing ready (future upgradeable)
Software: Cura - Official Ultimaker
Print technology: Fused filament fabrication (FFF)
Frame dimension X Y Z: 35.7 / 34.2 / 38.8 cm (no filament)
Frame dimension X Y Z: 49.2 / 34.2 / 55.8 cm (with filament)
Operation nozzle temperature: 180° - 260° C
Operation heated bed temperature: 50° - 100° C
Ambient operation temperature: 15° - 32° C
Storage temperature: 0° - 32° C
AC input: 100 - 240 V / ~4 AMPS / 50 - 60 HZ / 221 watt max.
Power requirements: 24 V DC @ 9.2 AMPS
Usage cost: ~ €0.05 / cm3 (material and power)

Source:

https://www.youtube.com/user/barnacules1?feature=watch

MadMaxx made this great video describing his experiences with Prusa Mendel. Because he described several problems and raised some questions he received a lot of negative comments on this video.
He did told me on twitter that he was intentionally controversial to start the debate which is important for open source community. Without discussion there is no progress and that is the point that some of his commentators do not understand. They just went into attack mode "HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT PROBLEMS!!!!!.




Problems he describes:

1. Hanging Z-axis
2. Two Z-axis motors
3. Lots of wire strain
4. Hard to maintain - easy to mess up 
5. X axis wobble

I don't't have lot of experience with Prusa Mendel, but I read or heard about most of those problems, but never tough of them as design issues. I just never connected the dots.
Many of those problems can be solved with upgrades and later Prusa Mendel designs made improvements to address those issues. And there is the Prusa I3 :-)

Update (11.1.2014.):

Josef Prusa responded to this video:

Hi man,
first, my name is pronounced "proosha".
As you said, its old model, no reason to bitch about it in 2013 you are three years too late ;-)
It is still built as there are thousands of ppl who can help you with it.

Hanging Z axis was made because it transfers less wobble to the print, now with tube couplings, its not needed. Your coupling slid out of the shafts either because they were oversized or you didnt tighten them. Sanding the motor shafts helps a lot too. Your cables broke as you didn't bolt them to the Y carriage or used poor cables. Two motor Z axis is much easier to maintain then the original mendel one, if you would built original mendel, you would know. That thing sucked to calibrate. The x axis wobble is true, but during prints it wasn't affecting the quality too much. ...
Anyway, keep up the good work.

Source:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQuUqd9ldUU

Let's talk abut problems. Criticism is free consulting.

Here are videos by Allen Jetter that describe how he improved his Prusa Mendel and changes / upgrades he made. He invested lot of work and time. It doesn't solve all problems mentioned above and raises some new issues, but it is good illustration on hove to move ahead.