[Kirby64]

The same responsiveness happens with a JBC iron in my experience. Temp hardly overshoots, and you can punch all 120W into a ground plane if you get good enough contact (and have a large enough tip). I've used both Metcal irons and JBC irons, and I would agree with the other poster that JBC is the better overall package.

Key benefits:

* JBC tips are cheaper, and clones are widely available that are just as performant and even cheaper ($10/tip)

* JBC tips have adjustable temp; you can argue this isn't useful, but if you typically solder leaded but need to desolder something unleaded then this is a problem since you need to bump temp to desolder properly.

* You mentioned this already, but handpieces are shorter generally. In my opinion this makes a huge difference to soldering experience, especially as I get shakier in my older age.