For me with anything electrical it's all about how easy a product is to use, I loathe anything complicated, and the Breville Intelligent Blender couldn't be any easier. Decent sized jug with enough capacity to blend a good pot full of soup or versatile enough to mix a single Mojito. Chops everything from nuts to ice and has a large range of other functions from pulse to puree. Everything is pre-programmed so you don't have to think about it, you just press the relevant function key and walk away but; you can stop the programme at any time. Variable speed control and not too noisy when in motion. Simple to read the function keys and they're large enough to see without having to bend down to look at what you're doing. I did find the lid difficult, it's a very tight fit, and taking the stopper out isn't that easy. Hopefully as I use the Breville more and more they'll become a little more flexible. Having only every used a hand blender I have to say that I wouldn't ever go back to that. This is a large blender though, takes up quite a bit of room, you might want to think about that if you're stuck for storage space.