This is a great electronic fireplace at this price point. It provides multiple color options for flames and it is very esthetically pleasing. We haven't used the heater function as much, but I don't expect it to serve as a heater.
I saw a few complaints that the flames are not as visible, and this problem is caused by too strong backlighting for glass pebbles: The light is too strong that the flames are being overshadowed. Unfortunately there's no way to control the intensity of the lighting but you can play around with different color options.
The main difference between this versus other high end fireplaces are
1. “The screen real estate” - there's more portion of projecting screen. Some higher end products have smaller sleeves for heater functions.
2. Flames - the flames are more realistic and more prominent. I noticed that the backlighting is just enough or weak enough that flames are visible for those products. Overall, this will not give the look of the real fireplace, but a fancy flame projections. If that's what you're looking for, this might not be it. I was more into the “idea” of fireplace.
3. This had glass pebbles, others have fake woods. I personally like glass pebbles better.
We've researched an electric fireplace at affordable price range without causing a headache and really struggled to narrow down to one since there are too many options. So far we are pretty satisfied and we haven't had much issue (knock on wood).
One problem I personally have is that the backing came with a crease on one end, which reflects when flames are on. I don't know how to fix the issue other than replacing the entire unit. And I wish this has timer functions where I can set time (of note, it has a timer for up to 8 hours). I might buy a fire cracker sound box just for fun.