I had the original Halo and liked it. Bought the Halo 2 when it came out and hated it. Used it for one tattoo and sold it. I just couldn't gel with it. I've had the Xion for the past few months and haven't been able to put it down or even think about trying out another machine. For how I tattoo, the Xion is the best machine I have used to date. My ONLY gripe about it is it is a bit of a pain in the ass to adjust the give when the machine is all bagged up during a session. I usually just leave it 2 clicks from the hardest setting but for some pieces that I have to get in with a liner needle and shade I like to have it dialed all the way to the softest setting so I don't get any weird needle marks. It's doable, but it's a pain in the ass. Other than that it runs cartridges smoother than any machine I've used and I have noticed a tremendous improvement in ink flow while using liner cartridges. I used to have sporadic ink flow issues with liner cartridges for some reason. I trouble shooted the ever living shit out of it and nothing seemed to combat that. I have had zero ink flow issues with the Xion. A few weeks back I had a Kwadron machine set up alongside the Xion and 10 minutes into lining with the Kwadron machine I started having shitty inkflow. I cleaned out the cartridge in my rinse cup, made sure there was no ointment build up, lint, etc. Lined for 10 more minutes and same thing. I took that same cartridge, put it in the Xion and lined the rest of the tattoo with perfect ink flow. They really did their homework on that machine and as far as dedicated cartridge machines go, I don't think there is much on the market right now that can compete with it.