I love it. I was skeptical about not getting the other types of machines but really this is absolutely perfect for a beginner. I have 0 regrets. Light weight and very compact. I use it all the time.
I am very happy with my Joy Xtra. It is compact and I can keep it on my desk. It is ready to go. I love that it fits letter size paper and I can make stickers, too. The drawback is that it cannot score. I got around this by using my etching tool, which puts the score on the page, but doesn't cut. It would be great if Cricut would come out with a scoring tool for the Xtra. I love it and I'm very glad I purchased the Joy Xyra.
I have the Venture, a few Makers, and some Explores machines all with the capability of doing print then cut however, hands down this little machine does it better, faster, and is compact! If you don't have this one you need it! This sits by my computer and I can just sit and feed my sheets into it, all while taking up hardly any space.
I love this machine. I started out with the joy and bought this quickly after. pros are all the tools I bought for the joy work with the joy extra minus the mats. I am a part time crafter at a very beginner level. I honestly still use both machines. I think if you’re going to invest in one I say the joy extra is where to put your money. But like I said before both are awesome the only tue difference is the print and cut feature and being able to do slightly bigger projects.