First experience of Terminal 5 at Heathrow; judgment: very nice! It was cavernous – more so than Terminal 4 and somewhat like Stanstead. And it was very empty, not like the cramped, claustrophobic, crowded spaces in Terminals 12&3. There were no queues at the check-in or baggage drops, and we made it through security in 5 minutes.
Beware, though: the instructions for security are misleading. In one place it says you have to be AT security 35 minutes before your flight; another place it says you must be THROUGH security 35 minutes before your flight. Obviously, the latter is the one to follow, given that it may take you 15 minutes to get to your gate (by shuttle) and flights close 20 minutes before departure!
The most fun thing about the new terminal is its tray delivery system at security. The trays that go through the scanners on the conveyor roller bars are turned around and sent back on another sent of roller bars underneath. So they arrive at the place for loading up automatically. No hauling the trays back by the staff; no waiting by passengers for more trays to be delivered. And instead of just queueing to remove your stuff, they have two stands for people to get their things loaded into trays, accessible from the roller bars underneath the main conveyor belt. Not bad thinking...
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