The touch screen is high quality and responsive, I ended up using it more often than I thought. It makes picture review a breeze after pressing the play arrow button. If you've ever used an I Phone/similar touch screen where you can make a pinching motion to to zoom in and out of photos, slide your finger left and right to flip through photos, it's the same familiar technology.
Very solid camera construction, heavy weight (with the lens attached it's very heavy to carry around in your hand, especially for anyone used to a smaller point and shoot - you WILL want to use the neck strap that comes with this.) I found it to be user friendly with many dial modes that allow you to get started quickly. The only thing I did not immediately figure out how to do is take video, as I expected it to be a mode on the dial and not in the main on/off switch area unlike previous versions of this camera and my other point and shoots. Anything you can't figure out, the extensive user guide book that comes with it should provide answers. It displays a description of each mode on the screen as you rotate the dial. You will want to buy a screen protector and a "lenspen", this will get small smudges and lint on it really fast. The flash disperses light extremely well compared to any camera I've used before. I was able to take pictures of my cats from a few feet away, didn't get the laser eye effect and could see every single piece of hair and little details of their noses as if they were in outdoor light. There is only one mode that doesn't use flash when the camera detects that it is dark, so if you're taking pictures of animals outside be aware that even in sunlight its possible that your flash with pop up with a loud snap sound scaring your animal away unless you have it on the NO FLASH setting. Burst mode is great for moving animals and people.
I got a 64gb SDXC card which in retrospect was overkill, each photo at 18mp is about 7 to 9mb each in full size .jpg mode, and after taking a thousand pictures I was still under a few % full on my memory card space. If you shoot RAW images then they are over 25mb each and I can see needing a massive card. Battery life is AMAZING when you do NOT use the live view touch screen or take video. I took pictures constantly, some with flash, for over 3 hours and still had nearly a full charge.
What I didn't like from my initial experience: This might seem like a no brainer for the experienced, but I was not expecting the camera to NOT allow me to take bad pictures. I thought I had a lemon when I repeatedly attempted to push down the shutter button to find it unresponsive. What really happened was, when you have the lens set to auto focus, you have to be the minimum focus distance away from your subject. Get too close and your camera will just act like you didn't press anything. Really I think that it should give you some sort of message on the screen to let you know that it's still alive and it just needs you to back up.
It took me a while to find the little camera screen icon button that activates the "live view" (so you can see images on the screen as you take them.) I was disappointed to find that it makes the camera audibly work much harder with focusing. The booklet also warns that the camera can overheat and shut down if you use this mode too long, and I don't doubt that it adds quite a bit of wear and tear on your camera. It also drains your battery much faster, so I would suggest that you use the viewfinder only.
I have quickly learned that this camera is capable of AMAZING shots, especially with good lighting. I take a lot of outdoor pictures including close up flowers to far away birds, animals and partial landscape pictures. I'm asking a lot from a single lens as far as range goes. Within days I found myself wishing for more zoom capabilities, coming from a point and shoot with 10x optical zoom I was actually a little surprised at the limited zoom distance on the 135mm. I bought the "EFS 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II" lens and found that, for my purposes, it completely replaces my 18-135mm kit lens. The kit lens is more suited for people who need the lower mm zoom range (such as group photos indoors, wide landscape shots or anytime being slightly zoomed in would be a negative.)
As long as you can stand at least 4 feet away from your subject you can take the same quality close up shots with the 250mm lens, I got some really beautiful flower macros with this lens. The only bad thing I could say about the 55-250mm is that the upgrade from the 18-135mm wasn't as significant as I'd hoped as far as view distance. The few feet of visual distance you gain IS worth it however, since it makes all the difference for not startling that chipmunk or bird. I found that I was able to take somewhat decent photos within 100 feet (with some noise when using automatic ISO settings, especially in the shade, and less sharpness than you might get with an L series lens,) GREAT photos when I was able to be within 20-30 feet, and PERFECT pictures when I was within 10 to 20 feet of my subject. I did eventually just move on to the 100-400mm lens so I could capture more small bird photos (zoom range is key for most wildlife photography) though it is around $1,500 - if this is in your price range or is needed for business I highly recommend it. Otherwise my favorite lens around that "inexpensive" $300 mark is the 55-250 for wildlife, flower photography, and even portraits when you are outside/have space to back up from your subject.