It's definitely a LOT better than the System 3, and even better than the Gravermate. It's a solid machine without the bells & whistles of the more expensive machines. While i have limited engraving time on one, I did use one in Basel, Switzerland last year and it performed perfectly. When you're cutting, you will never know you're not using a GraverMach. Whatever fine engraving you can do with a GraverMach, you can do with the GraverSmith. It has variable speed (which the Gravermate didn't have), and you can use all GRS handpieces with it. You can also add Airtact when you're ready. Those are the pros. The cons are you can only attach one handpiece at a time and it lacks the Bias control of the more expensive GraverMach (which I use less since I switched to Airtact), and I don't think (but am not sure) it has the same expensive precision regulator that the GraverMach has.