Pazzles Inspiration vs Quickutz Silhouette

I purchased the Silhouette over a year ago for a fantastic clearance price. I knew when I bought it that I really wanted the Pazzles Inspiration, however it was a great price and I really wanted an electronic cutter/plotter. The poor machine has been used well and it still works great.

The last time I Googled for the Pazzles Inspiration Overstock.com had it for a fantastic price! Luckily at the time it was the month of May which includes my Birthday, Mothers Day and our Anniversary. I frequently get a fantastic gift for these occasions from my DH and this year it was the Pazzles Inspiration!

Now that I've had a few months to play with the Inspiration and over a year to play with the Silhouette I thought I would give a small review on these two machines.

Quickutz Silhouette

Pros:

It's small and light and cuts directly from Adobe Illustrator. This is my complete list of pros.

Cons:

It's small (only cut's 8 inches wide) and I often have difficulty getting it to cut an image correctly. Some projects have to be cut multiple times because it will cut the image distorted. It will overheat if you use it for a long time and circles don't cut quite perfectly.

Pazzles Inspiration

Pros:

It's Large!!! (Cut's 12 inches wide) It's precise!!! (Circles are fantastic!) It can cut a lot of different materials.

Cons:

It's too big to take anywhere. It cannot cut directly from Adobe Illustrator which also means the only way you can get it to cut from a Mac is to load on virtual Windows. Which is sad...I really want a Mac and that sounds like a bit of a hassle.

Conclusion

The Pazzles is a much better machine, no doubt about it. I love it! However, I create all of my designs in Illustrator and wish sooo much that I could still cut directly from Illustrator. With the Silhouette I did all my cuts from Illustrator. I never even had to learn the software that came with it.

The pazzles cuts better, sounds better, feels stronger, is much more precise, cuts a HUGE amount of materials and can cut 12" wide! If you are in the market for a cutter, buy the Pazzles if you can afford it. Unfortunately the deal I got from Overstock is.... over. If you don't want to spend a lot, some places still sell the older Silhouette for under $200 and it is a great place to start.