Currently 9 months pregnant & my neck, back & hips have really been aching. I pulled this thing out, plugged it in, and OMG! Was convinced this needed to be in my hospital bag for labor!

It is so relaxing and immediately helped relieve my tension areas!

Bought this for my husband because he has back and neck pain. At night, he takes it to bed and use it on his neck. In the morning he brings it down and use it on his back. He loves it because it is small so he can pack it when we go on vacations.

First off, I have never used one of these "kneading", Shiatsu massagers before, so my review isn't really comparing this to others on the market.

Effectiveness: I love it. I bought it to deal with lower back pain, and have been using it about 4 hours a day, for almost a week. The pain is going away slowly, due to my combo of chiropractor, ibuprofen, stretching, changing position every 20 minutes and this massager. So while I can't isolate its impact on my recovery, it feels wonderful while I'm using it, and other areas that are habitually tight, are feeling much looser. I imagine that I will probably use this thing daily until it wears out.

Usability: Being a usability engineer, I can't review a product without assessing usability. The form factor is decent. I have used it all up and down my spine from my head to my butt, and can usually find a position that doesn't hit my vertebra. I would prefer a bigger gap down the middle so it would be easier to position so that it doesn't hit bone. I also have been unable to get comfortable with it in a sitting position on the couch. I've been using it almost exclusively lying down (on said couch), which works great.

It must be plugged in, which some will see as a negative, but I have so many devices that are either never charged when I need them, lose charge over time or don't generate enough power to do their job, that I purposely avoided a battery-operated device. The cord gets in the way a bit, but it's not a problem.

The buttons are a usability train wreck. One controls power and heat, and the other controls speed. They are not on the cord, but on a corner of the device, so are very difficult to reach while using the massager. And they are the same size, shape and color, so whether you are feeling around for them or looking directly at them, it's hard to know which is which. The rubberized labels are virtually indistinguishable from one another. Also, the power button turns on massage and heat with the first press, changes the direction of the massage with the 2nd press and turns off heat with the 3rd. Since it changes directions every few minutes anyway, there is no value in the 2nd press, and since I like it without heat (it's summer right now), it's always 3 presses for me to turn it on.

Summary: It is cheaper than many others I saw on Amazon, and my guess is that most of them are almost identical in function. I think it feels great, and am pleased with my purchase. There are a few usability issues that are not deal-breakers to me. Even if it lasts only 6 months at the frequency I intend to use it, I would probably just buy the same one again.

I bought this to try to phase out how often I get a massage... it really works better than I thought it might!
It makes my boyfriend uncomfortable, but it gets pretty deep into some spots on my back. Plus it turns off after 15 minutes, so it's on you to decided to keep going or leave it off.
Great value for the money!

The car cord doesn't supply enough power for this to work. I checked the fuse, and used a volt meter, power was supplied to the unit, but it would not turn on. I had to use a 90w voltage inverter with the wall outlet to get the unit to function in my vehicle. Otherwise, works great