From what I've seen this is a decent soldering iron. I'm fairly new to PCB layout and soldering but this was pretty easy to use and got the job done. It comes with a solder trap which I have yet to use but it's a nice addition. There was an unpleasant smell when I first used it, but that went away with each use, and it may have been the plastic that I didn't remove first. It also comes with lots of extra solder for my work, which is nice.