This is the second breadmaker I've owned and the better of the two.

--The Unit--

It's quite large, make sure you check the dimensions fit your kitchen or wherever else you are going to have it. This isn't a criticism, it has to be large. The colouring is just plain white, not too glossy, so blends in well in most kitchens I'd imagine.

--Options--

There's plenty of options for things you can make with it - I've used it to make bread, croissants, pizza dough, hot cross buns, pastry and more. Especially useful is the built in raisin/seed tray - you fill this with whatever extra ingredients you want to go into your dough and at the preset time it'll open and drop the contents into the mix. Perfect for granary bread, raisin bread and much more.

In addition to the basic options (covered below) you can set the crust colour (light or dark) for bread, and set it on a delay timer too which is great - I can go out at lunchtime and come home in the evening to fresh bread knowing it's finished just a few minutes before I've come back through the front door.

Basic preset options are:

Bake normal (mix and bake the bread in the normal time)
Rapid bake (mix and bake in around 2 hours)
Raisin bake (open the raisin/seed tray during the mixing stage)
Dough (mix dough but don't bake it)

Aside from the normal and rapid bake the baking time is set by the type of flour used which you also select - basic white dough, whole wheat, French, Italian, gluten free...you can also set to bake only if you've already made the dough.

The only criticism I have is that some of the recipes (e.g. pizza dough) take longer to make in the unit than they do by hand...but then I guess it's hassle and mess free!

--In the Box--

The recipe book that comes with the unit is very good and covers just about everything you want to make unless you get ambitious. No pictures but clear instructions.