Somehow, after years of slowly, but steadily building up my arsenal of kitchen tools - from the indispensable to the "Oh, I forgot I had this" (I'm looking at you, potato ricer) - I finally got a cordless hand mixer. The Cuisinart EvolutionX is, frankly, kind of a silly distillation of someone's idea of futuristic hand mixers, but that is kind of why I bought it.Abandoning the homage to 50s kitchen gadgetry replete with rounded corners and indelible chrome finishes that was found in their previous model, the EvolutionX seems almost designed for the cybernetic baker of the future - presumably, someone who is baking oatmeal raisin cookies for the cops in Demolition Man, or for Skynet after the fall of mankind. It only comes in one color for now - a dark, gunmetal gray - and boasts an easily legible digital display showing your speed settings. You know this mixer is futuristic because it has an "X" in its name and is too busy doing futuristic things to include a space between "Evolution" and "X," too.The ergonomics are good on this, with its rubberized grip nestling firmly and comfortably in your hands. The mixer is also pretty lightweight, which I guess is the appeal of hand mixers in general. Unlike some other mixers, this one only comes with two whisks/spinny things, as opposed to dough hooks and other swappable attachments. I don't mind this since I have a stand mixer I use for pizza dough and focaccia bread, but it's worth noting.What I DO mind is the power button, which takes more effort to engage than you would think. After charging my unit and plugging in the whisks, I tried to turn it on. Nothing turned on. So, I re-seated the whisks, then tried to turn it on. Nothing turned on. Somewhere between blaming the product for not turning on and questioning my manhood for not being able to turn it on, I realized that the "click" from pressing in the power button didn't mean anything at all. Think of it as a prelude to actually turning on... a sound that says, "Hey buddy, you're on the right track."You have to continue pressing in the button past the click to actually turn it on. Yes, this takes more effort than it should. I don't know if this is a design flaw, or something deficient with my particular version, though.According to the manual, this machine gets 5 minutes of continuous run time when mostly charged, and I would guess maybe 6-7 minutes when fully charged (2.5 hours). While this is enough time for most things you'd use a hand mixer for, it doesn't feel good to bake while being cognizant of a time limit.Since this is my first hand mixer, I can't compare its power to a corded hand mixer, but I'd guess it's weaker. Although this unit has 5 speed settings, the increase in speed doesn't really translate into an increase in power uniformly. When making a recipe with a thicker dough, settings 1-4 churned the dough at similar speeds. It wasn't until setting 5 that it engaged enough power to move through the dough with more ease. It'll get the job done for sure, but I can't help but feel that its cordless design is resulting in less power than in past models.At $80 at the time of purchase, you're paying a premium for its cordless design. This is a great model for any parkour runners who need to whip up cookies while summersaulting across buildings, but for most people that have outlets in their kitchen, I think it makes more sense to buy a corded, older model. You won't get the sweet blue LED lights on it or have a mixer that possesses the swagger of ED-209, but you'll probably save a few bucks and have a more capable machine.