When the tree arrived, it was in a box a little tightly packed, so it took a few minutes to "fluff" the tree out to its full, even size. It matches the item picture pretty closely. The 5' height quoted includes the stand, upon which the tree is mostly balanced, and although it feels a little precarious, it hasn't fallen over yet. The tree is pre-strung with three 50-light strands twisted around the branches, each with their own socket that must be plugged in, which isn't exactly what I imagined, but wasn't too onerous.
Anyway, it certainly does help the living room feel festive, without being too overbearing in size, or bringing any nasty nature inside my house. Overall: 4 stars for an overall good product, but 1 star down because of the three strands of lights thing.