JBC vs FixPoint solder station

I've used JBC's soldering/rework station for some 10 years now, and despite price (IIRC close to 2400€ for solder/desolder station I have) it has been a very good investment. Nice to work with, easily changed tips for different needs and so on. It is not easily movable, though, since it has separate control units and holders, so recently I went and bought cheap-ish soldering station for "field" use for whopping 95€, VAT included.

There are cheaper irons available too, but like I've said so many times - never take the cheapest one, go one price group up and choose from there. Cheapest ones are always pure crap.

First impression is not great, but not horrible either. It's plastic-y, but feels solid enough so there should not be need for padded bag for it. Although I wouldn't throw it in my toolbag like a wrench either.

Name on label is fixPOINT EP-5, although I am almost certain that this very same station is sold under several names elsewhere. Display isn't as bad it seems on picture, but not great either. Since by JBC was set to 350C, it set this to same temperature too.

I turned both stations on at same time, and after just several seconds JBC was already up to correct temperature. Fixpoint however took easily minute or two to get to requested temperature - or, at least reported temperature.

For reference, here is JBC holder (control unit itself not shown). Width is about third of Fixpoint, but iron tips makes it much higher. Tip can be changed by pulling old out (see empty slot on bottom left) and pushing new tip in, without using other hand to hold tip at any point. Great when you suddenly find yourself needing other tip for larger or finer work.

In my work, I find that it is best if you can hold the iron as close as possible of the tip, and JBC (on top, obviously) is absolute winner here. The green holder is thin (just 12mm in total width), so it can be held like pen and distance between tip and holder is less than 60mm, allowing you to have very nice, fine control there. And although holder is very thin, I find that only after very long period of working (4+ hours of continuous building a prototype/test board) it gets a bit warm - but even then, not excessively so. For shorter rework times you don't even notice the heat.

fixPoint on the other hand... Well, let's just to say that I don't even bother trying to do anything fine with this. It is long and clumsy. Definitely not recommended for fine reworking. But that's okay for me, this time; I bought this for crude-ish field use exclusively. That's why there's solder wire wrapped around the handle; it's best place to hold it when hauling this around.

I wouldn't want to change fixPoint tip when working either, as it requires unscrewing the metal part completely and changing tip part. And since cooling/heating it takes a long time, you'll be waiting for long time to be able to do it.

I don't have suitable thermometer for measuring actual heat of tips, so Flir thermal camera will have to do as substitute. Emissivity is very likely far off (metal parts are shiny/reflective so camera can't measure them properly). Note also "multispectral" ghost images below; when taking images from very close range, images don't overlay properly.
As reported, Flir apparently can't reach these temperatures (showing just ">280" for JBC), but assuming that JBC is approximately correct, the fixpoint is... not even close. Both irons were set to 350, both showed 350, but fixPoint here seems to be significantly cooler. Hot enough for leaded soldering, but I think I wouldn't want to try lead-free with it.

But again, FLIR isn't greatest tool when trying to measure temperatures of relatively shiny metal objects.

So, I wouldn't recommend fixPoint for general work, but if you need iron only occasionally and just for small fixes with larger-scale work (no tiny SMDs), it might be okay. You get what you pay for.