Repost:
Hmm, apple or orange. Yep, while they are similar these two things are not like the other. Now if you continued to sing the song, you've either got a toddler, young child or just enjoy Sesame Street. But I digress...
So, I've been eyed both of these bad boy or should I say bad girl cutters for a long time. Being the frugal with tools person that I am and with all expensive purchases (see prior posts) I wait until I'm sure especially if I plan on buying any for Crop Addict. With that being said, I had a decent amount of hands on experience with the Cricut Expressions thanks to a few crops where the hostess had several for us to use. And boy, did I cut out a ton of titles. :)
So I was thoroughly enamored so much so that I almost bought one. But then I was reminded about the Quickutz Silhouette.
I'm going to do this review a bit differently:
1) Cartridges or Freedom. The biggest difference between the Cricut Expressions and the Quickutz Silhouette is cartridges. With the Quickutz Silhouette there are not external cartridges required. You simply connect the Quickutz Silhouette to your computer and use your existing fonts or images. Should you desire to purchase designs and other items, you can. But the key is that you don't have to.
With the Cricut Expressions without cartridges you can't cut a thing. You have to buy each cartridge to cut the font and/or images associated. At this time, you can not hook up the Cricut Expressions to your computer to cut fonts or images.
Thus, if you have a large collection of fonts, have a laptop that you can take to crops when away from home, or you don't wish to purchase all the needed cartridges then the cutting machine for you is the Quickutz Silhouette.
If you don't want to be connected to your computer, don't have laptop that you can take to crops when away from home, or don't mind buying cartridges, then the Cricut Expressions is your choice.
2) Size. The Cricut Expressions machine body is big and heavy. Whereas, the Quickutz Silhouette is light and medium sized, smaller than a regular sized printer and about 5 inches tall.
3) Paper size. The Quickutz Silhouette can only cut up to 8 1/2 x 11. I was quite disappointed as I was under the impression that I could cut 12 x 12 sheets. And with the Quickutz Silhouette they recommend that you not cut anything smaller than 4x6. The Cricut Expressions, on the other hand, can cut 12 x 12 and you can put a tiny paper, 2x2 on the mat and still cut. That versatility is very nice, especially if you're like me and save all your scraps.
4) Ease of Use. The Quickutz Silhouette gives the impression that it's simply connect to the computer and go. Well, let me tell you, I was about ready to give mine away tonight. I bought it about 3 weeks ago but haven't had time to use it, especially since I thought it was bigger and needed to find room on my desk. While I'm not a geek, I'm certainly no slouch or moron when it comes to technical things. But it took me a good 45 minutes to figure out how to cut a simple design. However, once I figured it out everything went well. The instruction manual while clear, needs to be clearer.
The Cricut Expressions is so easy a child could use it. The tech guys for Cricut need to give the tech guys for Quickutz a call and inservice on writing manuals and designing cutting machines. One funny thing, the software calls the Quickutz Silhouette the Craft Robo instead of the Quickutz Silhouette. I'm thinking that when it was first designed, that was the name. But test markets showed that no woman would buy a cutting machine called the Craft Robo so they changed it to the Silhouette but they neglected to change the software.
So if you're tech challenged and don't want to spend time figuring out how to cut your image or title, go with the Cricut Expressions.
That's pretty much it in a nutshell. I really like the Cricut Expressions for the ease of use, ability to cut 12x12 paper and smaller sizes but having to buy multiple cartridges would seriously cut into my budget.
Because I'm a font junkie, I've got 364 on my computer and only because I limit myself, otherwise I'd probably have many, many more, I went with the Quickutz Silhouette. As mentioned, I've only played with it for about 45 minute tonight but I think I'm going to like it. If not, it'll be posted on ebay. LOL