It is very good for people who just want to cook meat and chicken without worrying about whether it is cooked enough, whether it needs turning, whether they should cut the chicken into pieces so it cooks properly, whether it has reached 73°C so you don’t get salmonella, etc., and generally to end up stopping caring about cooking.

The appliance calculates the cooking time based on the type and thickness of the meat you put in, through the sensor it has. Literally, you put the meat in and it tells you when it is ready, while you prepare the rest. No timing, no setting temperatures, no different temperature on the top and another on the bottom plate, nothing. It is by far the easiest way to cook meat without much fuss.

A note about chicken, since because of the risk, Tefal doesn’t take chances, so every time I tested chicken fillets in it (necessarily only the well-done setting exists for chicken), the temperature they had reached at the center with a proper meat thermometer was from 91 to 97 degrees, instead of the minimum 74–76 I would expect, but better safe than sorry, as they say in my village, plus gradually anyway with more testing I think I’ll just end up taking the meat out 3–4 minutes before “ready” if I see it reaches the safe temperatures for a juicy chicken fillet.

The process is simple:

You preheat until it tells you it is ready to put the food in.

You put the food in and it measures the thickness, the temperature, and the type you selected (meat, chicken, fish, vegetables).

It cooks it as much as it should and tells you “it’s ready, take it out and eat it” :)

The slope of the surface is just right, so the juices drain from whatever is being cooked where they should (into the very spacious container) and don’t overflow here and there.

You can move it even when it is on (it has a handle on both the top and bottom — if you hold it you’ll understand).

It also has manual mode, but I haven’t used it. The whole point is “set it and forget it.”

It cleans easily, but of course it has a grill surface, so with burnt juices from meat/marinades etc., it needs a little “scrub-scrub” with a plastic brush after you’ve let the plates soak, but don’t put the plates in the dishwasher if you want them to last. It says “dishwasher safe,” but between us that means they won’t be ruined in 2–3 washes. Like ALL non-stick cookware, their lifespan is greatly reduced by dishwasher detergents and very high temperatures.

Who it is NOT for:
– For people who just want a sandwich press (and a very expensive one, and it doesn’t have a flat surface).
– For fussy hobby chefs who want to preheat their seasoned cast-iron pan for 20 minutes and then cook their ribeye with butter and rosemary for 55 seconds and have complete control over how they cook the meat.

UPDATE after 2 months: it still has a permanent place on the counter and is used every week, after quite a few different meats though, one warning: it always overcooks, so you have to learn to take things out earlier than it says. Beef when it says rare is medium-rare, and when it says medium, it is medium to well-done. Similarly, the chicken as I mentioned before overcooks it, so for 3 fillets that it says 15 minutes, definitely at 9–11 it is already safe to eat.
P.S.: damn if I understood why someone gave me a downvote on an entire soul-baring review I wrote...