After spending some time playing the game this weekend, I can honestly say that I had a blast. I did initially exceed my bandwidth downloading everything, but it was worth it.
Newbie's take:
So far at least where I was playing (Queens Colony), the lag appeared to be minimal for me (played different hours of the day too) and my fps ranged from about 26-60 with an overall average of ~42fps. Once I started playing, I never exceeded my bandwidth (the only new zone I had to dl was artisan workshop) and I played for a good 5-6 hours yesterday. It was also very easy to group with others to grind out xp and there was a decent amount of pvp'ing going on as well. I love to pvp so the fact that there were alot of people playing was something I welcome.
I definitely wasn't used to seeing that with Vanguard for it has really died out now - hence why I am here.
Anyway, Sony did a really good job with the EQ2 (from what I can tell thus far) and I think I will go ahead and buy the game once my trial period is up.
PS: I have HughesNet and this co. is one of the few who were able to service my area to provide something better than dialup and I am a very happy customer.