A large proportion of our customer base have been involved in vinyl cutting themselves, and have more or less several vinyl cutting machines in their homes, so their comments will be more professional and informative.
Gary Zenker from the United States is a crafts enthusiast with several vinyl cutting machines and a best-selling author. His profile reads:
Marketing strategist and implementer who has worked in a variety of industries. Co-author (with his son) of Says Seth and of More Says Seth; author of Meetup Co-author (with his son) of Says Seth and of More Says Seth; author of Meetup Leader, and editor of 25 Rock & Roll Archives reprint books. Writer of Marketing content and flash fiction in assorted genre. Founder and leader of two writers groups.
After receiving the Likcut S501, he gave the compact vinyl cutter a four-star rating, praising its ease of operation, how quickly he got started, and how well it cuts. But he also made some suggestions for the more expensive art decals. He would like to reduce the cost of purchasing a single drawing. However, if you buy a membership, all the materials in it are able to be used at will, and the price will be cheaper!
<Works with the app but better with the computer - but expensive art and fonts>
Gary Zenker
I already own a full-size Cricut but thought it would be great to compare this small portable machine to it. And for the most part, it works pretty much the same, down to the limited access to graphics it provides and the overpriced per-piece art I can buy on an ad hoc basis.
It comes with the unit, a power cord. usb cord, picker and black pen, self-stick matt and a couple of vinyl samples. It works much like I would have expected. I tried using the app first and it could be me, but I found it hard to find online graphics I could download then paste into the program...ok, impossible. I was able to use their standard free font and graphics but they were few and far between. Clearly part of the business is to sell you expensive art or additional fonts, just like Cricut does. Hrmph.
As far as functionality goes, it cut the sample vinyl fine. I really don't need more than one picking tool so that was fine, also. The size is fine for smaller items or even a decent-sized T-shirt image/text.
My four-star rating reflects the limited art and fonts included, the pricy clip art purchase, and the challenging mobile app. I'll never use this with anything but the computer application.
