I have purchased three of these and I think I am going to purchase another. The last three still work. The first one was designed a little differently, more like the Magic Bullet. The last two are like the picture with the push button. The first I had gotten for my daughter when she moved out. Well she moved back in so I got to use it. I love it for protein shakes. Then I bought two more one for me and one for my sister. Well the son moved out so he got the oldest one. The daughter moved out so she got the one that was here that we were using. The third one was a gift to my sister. Now I don' have one here and I wanted to get away from the three tabs only because sometimes they are hard to slide in. After reading all the reviews I decided that for the price you cannot beat it. It comes with more blending cups than any of the others. Once you get used to using it, you will find out what works and what doesn't. The pulse button is great, just like a large blender you are not supposed to let it run nonstop. Unless the Magic Bullet has changed design you have to turn the whole cup and then turn to stop so hard to pulse. It also has the three tabs. I have used the Magic Bullet so this is from first hand experience.Pros -1. Price2. 300 watt motor3. Number of cups included4. Pulse button5. Customer Service at the company is really good.Cons1. Cups are probably not dishwasher safe. I have had some leak in the seam, so I stopped putting them in the dishwasher. I did contact the manufacturer and they did send me two replacement cups (including useless travel lids and gray rings) :) I just had to pay shipping $4.95. They did report the problem so maybe there will be a fix. I also thought it might be caused by the whole ice cubes pulsing against the sides.Neutral1. The gray rings, not sure what their purpose is. They are too small to insulate, I don't hold the cup at the top to drink. Don't really get it. Would rather see another cup or a refrigerator lid.If you are using ice, you have to use a liquid. I don't really think it is loud. if you are crushing ice it will be loud no matter what blender you are using. You only blend for seconds, so no big deal to me.Now that I have written a novel, I hope that it will help someone choose.I use this about 3 times a week to make smoothies. Not the best with frozen fruit, never completely breaks it up so you have chunks of frozen fruit to try and chew.Also, maybe its normal, but the motor has a strong smell when using it.,Overall for as little as I use it, seems to do good for the cost.Me encantó, hasta el momento he tenido muy buena experiencia con el uso de la batidoraI use the blender for protein shakes and it works well haven’t used it on anything stronger. I’m not a fan of the cups bottoms but it does the job no complaints.I've been using this every morning for the last year. The first cup cracked from trying to chop ice. My fault, I should have known better. Since then, it has been used almost exclusively to make my breakfast shakes. It's simple to use, fairly easy to clean, and quiet enough that my upstairs neighbors have never complained about the noise at 5 am. When this one quits (I don't foresee that happening soon), I'll definitely purchase another.I really loved using the Elite gourmet personal electric blender because it has multiple different mixes with multiple different blades. I used it few times to make different things such as: garlic paste with chilies. I use it to make milkshakes too using the shake recipe book which is included with the manual. The cup size is just perfect for small family. I use this product at least 5 times a week to make different protein shakes; and use to chop veggies for cooking. I also put the containers in the dish washer and had a great outcome. They were properly clean no dirt left on small spaces in between choppers. I really recommend people to buy this product especially small family members.I use mine 2-3x a day for a little over 2 months now. Every time I use it, right away I smell a hot electronics smell (some describe it as a burning smell), this is NORMAL for cheap China made electric motors. The secret to long life with those types of motors is short burst of power. So far, I've had zero issues with this not able to blend properly, then again I use mostly for liquid + powder, occasionally frozen blueberries, nothing strenuous like large dense chunks of frozen fruit.For longer life results, (1yr+), power on bursts no longer than ~10-20 secs. If it's not mixing well in that time period the mix doesn't have enough liquid, or manually shake up and burst on again, there should be a rest time of about 15 seconds between on bursts.