I have only ever had cheap artificial trees bought from the local discount store. I bought the 9-ft. heighth of this tree but, if I had it to do over, I'd probably buy the 6- to 7.5-ft. heighth. The 9 ft. seems almost TOO tall for such a slim tree. In any case, in my opinion this Canterbury design is STUNNING. If you like the picture of it, wait until you see this beauty in person. All artificial trees at first have sparse areas between the branches; like any tree, you have to groom this one, but once you spread out the branches, this tree is so full - easily double the branch tips of my old cheapo tree. The decorations already on the tree - olive leaves, pine cones, berries - are so lovely that I will likely only decorate with my favorite ornaments and nothing else. There's really no need for bows, ribbons, garland, or other adornments. The one thing I need to mention is that the GKI Bethlehem Lighting website makes it sound like all of their trees have the IPP technology where the sections of the tree plug into one another (no external cords), but this tree is old-style where each section has an external cord. It's still quite easy to set up and use. I am THRILLED with this tree and now only hope that the lighting lasts at least a few years. The tree is so gorgeous that I will likely keep it even after the lighting inevitably fails. I'll just go back to stringing lights again.