Off to a bad start!
I would have given this a 5 if I hadn't struggled so much with Design Database Transfer. The Flare manual gave me a link to download it. The link was bad. So I did a search for it in the Babylock website. It showed me machines that had it and classes for it - but no download. And the Flare description itself says "click here" to get it.... but there is no clickable link. I tried on firefox and chrome and watched a few youtube videos, but they were all doing just what I did - but they got better results! I finally found someplace on the site to download it, but when I went to install it, Windows Defender told me that it might not be safe. I looked a little closer and thought... hmm... why wouldn't Babylock have put in their name in so the publisher didn't show up as 'unknown'? Or why not warn us in the manual? But I found a YouTube video where she told us not to worry about it, and she disabled her own virus checker after telling Windows Defender to go ahead, so I figured it must really be safe. Once I got past that, though, I have been VERY happy! Now, true, I had a Brother before this so I had a basic background for what to do, but I have tried other brands, and I always end up with a Brother or Babylock because their options just make sense, unlike some of the other brands where, when I ask a friend for help and they give me the answer, I have to look at them to see if they are kidding because it just seems so roundabout. I love the threader, I love how I can set what brand of thread I am using and if I would rather see color names or color numbers since it can be really hard to tell the difference between dark green, dark blue, dark brown, and black on the machine. But I wouldn't ALWAYS want to see color names because some of them can be bizarre (tamarack, ming). I love how easily it stitches and how smooth the stitches are, even when there are letters with tiny fonts. I REALLY love how easy it is to use the design database transfer and that the designs go away when I turn off my machine, so I don't have to remember to delete them. They only thing that is going to take some adjustment for me is that when it moves to a new area to embroider the same color, it doesn't go straight there - it seems to go to the nearest side of the hoop and THEN go to where it needs to go. I panic every time it embroiders the mouth of an animal and then goes to the bottom of the hoop, when I KNOW that the next thing it is going to do is the eyes. I would highly recommend this machine. It is easy enough for a beginner, but the 6x10 hoop is big enough for more advanced users.