I am going to get myself a new soldering iron so am looking for some help deciding.
I have a Katsu 852D just now, the small blue one with hot air station. It's in good nic and does the job fine but I have heard people saying Hakko/Weller stuff is like night and day compared to the cloned irons. I will keep the Katsu as a 2nd/back up iron and use the hot air attached to it for SMD stuff. I am happy enough with the Katsu for any SMD work for now.
The Katsu is my 1st iron so I've only used that and have nothing to compare it to. I don't do a load of soldering but will be nice to have a proper iron if they really are that much better.
The Katsu uses a Hakko knock off iron and I use genuine Hakko tips in it and they made a noticeable difference to the cheap tips that come with the Hakko clone iron.
That's a tip for anyone using the Hakko clone iron too by the way...get a genuine Hakko tip for it and see the difference it makes. Well worth it i'd say, the iron holds it's heat so much better and is much better to use. I got mine from PROTO-pic UK, well worth the extra ££!!