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With Leopard’s arrival today, early reviews for Apple’s newest operating system are starting to surface on the internet, including one from Walt Mossberg at The Wall Street Journal and another from David Pogue at The New York Times. There are dozens of important new features in Leopard and very few disappointments, according to the reviewers.

Mossberg describes the operating system as an evolutionary release rather than a dramatic breakthrough, but says that it is still “better and faster” than Windows Vista. Among the new features perhaps the most notable is the new Time Machine application, which makes it easier for users to back up and restore their files. Other new features include the Quick Look file previews, and the ability to browse with Cover Flow in Finder.

The reviewers did mention a couple of gripes here and there, however, including the addition of translucency to the menu bar which can make it difficult to see the items, some inconsistencies with Stacks, and Time Machine’s limited backup locations. But all in all, even though Leopard is not considered a dramatic upgrade and there is probably no reason to buy it immediately, its new features and polished old ones add a lot of value to the system. You can click on the aforementioned links to read the complete reviews.