Nice sharp blade. I like the fact that it is not too heavy. It doesn't move at all. Some have complained it is too light... I'm not sure what they are cutting but maybe it is not designed for that, whatever it is. I can cut through 10 sheets of regular paper without the cutter even almost moving. As others have noted, the top edge is not flat and because of this you can't easily line up the paper without eyeballing it using the grid. It does cut pretty well if you hold the paper down. The laser is semi-useful. I find myself not using it most of the time. I actually push (bend) the safety guard down onto the paper to hold it in place, which works fairly well. I have noticed that a quick cut gives a better result than a slow one. If I had it to do over again, I would probably pay a bit more for a better one, but it works. Play with it some and you can get clean, straight cuts.

From a product bearing the X-ACTO name, I expected better. From the listing description, I expected this to be a sturdy, if still plastic, paper cutter. Instead I get a flimsy device that is poorly designed. From its preview images, one could assume it would have a bit of heft to it. Nope. The cardboard box it comes in is almost heavier.

My biggest issue though? The supposed safety lock. It barely qualifies for the name. Like many other paper cutters, the locking mechanism is a little hook that hooks from the cutting arm into the body. Except this hook (~1/4 in deep) can be disengaged by pushing sideways on the blade. There is so much play on the blade to the side, that my cat was able to unlock the cutting arm by bumping it with his head. I would not trust this mechanism to keep the blade locked down even when storing the thing.

Add this to the fact that the plastic body fits together poorly and the bed sits a couple inches higher than any other paper cutter I've owned, I would return it. Except returning this purchase to amazon would cost me more money. I won't be buying this product ever again and will seriously consider buying any X-ACTO brand products in the future if this quality of product is the standard.

I gave this one star, and I rarely do that. Once I give my reasoning you may understand why. I will give pro's and con's and explain what constitutes one star with out droning on, or at least I'll try to. I'll review each feature of the product so you can chose what you care to read.

How it cuts: As good as you can eye ball it. the blade is sharp, it seems sturdy but there is one HUGE design flaw that makes this whole product almost useless as it was advertised as a "precision" cutter. It is NOT precise because the back wall is not a flat surface. yes, that is right, X-acto, know for it's arts and crafts precision tools for cutting paper and other things for design students, made a paper cutter that you can not align the paper against a back wall for precise, "exact" cuts each time. The back wall you normally would align it to is a gap so that the cheap, plastic guide can go it. the paper goes against it and will bend up or down into the grove and you will not get exact, precise cuts. That is a HUGE problem for any design student (architect specifically) when making your portfolio book. I am HIGHLY DISAPPOINTED with X-acto and will make me more cautious to buy their products in the future.

Laser: comes in the handle, must be attached with given screws. It is located in the Styrofoam packaging on initial opening. laser "works" great. it's a laser, it points where you set it to, so that works as expected. But due to the previously mentioned design flaw, this feature is rendered useless.

guide: I didn't like it, I was looking for something precise to cut with, but instead, they installed a groove for this stupid guide to sit in and now I can't get my cuts exact (ironic, because it's "X-acto"). the guide itself is cheap plastic, which wouldn't be a problem, but it's design is cheap too. it has a moveable clip that will hold it in place, but the swing of the clip is kind of annoying and I find it a little difficult to be precise with.

blade: sharp and has a great cut

stand: plastic, light but not bad. still seems sturday

grid: I guess it's accurate, hard to tell with out a back wall to line your paper on.

Overall, if it weren't for the absence of a backwall, I would say it would be 5 stars, but that is a HUGE problem when you advertise something as a "precision" tool. I am disappointed in X-acto and will be more cautious buying things with their name on it. I think I will be returning this item. I do not recommend for buying.

I wanted to love this cutter but it just didn't work out for me. It's a very nice cutter and it worked perfectly. My problems with it were:

1) I use light lines on my printed images to show where to cut. The laser was so bright that I couldn't see my lines at all. Also, it was a very wide beam - almost 1/16" at the base where it projects from. I ended up putting tape over it so I could see what I was doing. I thought the laser would be awesome, but it just didn't work out for me.

2) The handle has a neat locking mechanism that automatically latches as soon as you push the blade all the way down. It's clever and it works great, but it locks the blade every time you push the handle down. It's totally not friendly if you're working quickly doing multiple cuts (I use this for my business and usually do hundreds of cuts at a time). I ended up doing a combination of keeping my thumb pressed on the release button (very uncomfortable) and trying not to let the blade go down far enough to lock (also not comfortable).

I ended up trading this in for the X-ACTO 15" Heavy Duty Paper Trimmer, also on Amazon. That one works perfectly for me.

The title says "Heavy Duty." And the bullet listing includes "Heavy Duty" twice! This is NOT a heavy duty trimmer by any measure. In fact the box does not claim it to be heavy duty. So, this is a case of false advertising.

It's a nice trimmer, but with very light construction. I can imagine that the laser guidance helps in most uses. But it is for light duty paper cutting, just a few sheets of regular paper. I needed a true heavy duty trimmer. I immediately noticed that X-Acto does not include the "Heavy Duty" claim on the box. I also immediately noticed that the box was quite light.

But it was here, so I pulled it out. It's very attractive and would grace the desk of anyone needing a nice-looking paper trimmer. I like that wide handle, too. But it is just thin plastic. I bought this to cut thin printed circuit boards, and watched several YouTube videos that show how easy it is with a heavy duty paper trimmer. This was the cheapest one on Amazon with the words "Heavy Duty" in the title, so I gave it a shot because with Amazon Prime, there are no worries. I didn't even try using it---just boxed it back up and returned with, specifying "Not as described" in the "reason for return" checkbox.

This thing has plenty of good reviews, so if you're a scrap book maker or have kids in school or a home office, this will probably work for you. But I stand by my One-Star rating because of the false claim in the title.

If the seller will change the title to "Light Duty" I'll edit my review to five stars. If you'll just remove the words "Heavy Duty" from the title, I'd bump it up to four stars. But, Dear Sellers, this is most definitely a One-Star "Heavy Duty" trimmer!!