This is my first experience of playing an electric instrument.
I chose Yamaha YEV-105 NT Electric Violin not only for it's elegant design, but because of 5th string and well known Yamaha quality.
Sounds very quiet of course when not connected to an amplifier, but is enough to tune and even practice if you don't want to wake up your neighbors, for example.
Of course it won't replace an acoustic instrument, because as much as I love the variety of sound options, I don't realy like that I cannot control the strength of a sound only with a pressure of my bow. I think now that it would be very usefull to have a volume pedal.
The time is needed to ajust to the strings level and number, but it's much less confusing, then when one starts to play the viola after playing violin. It's light and comfortable and a 5th string is a great feature.
In total I am very satisfied with my choice, it's not the cheepest one, but I believe it's totaly worth it.