I know it can't compete with Blendtec, Breville, Vitamix, etc. but does anyone know if it is better then most blenders? It was on sale for $50 and it only caught my eye because if claimed to function as a food processor also. On the preprogrammed modes it reverses the blade itself and they made salsa with it on a commercial.
I would like to make whole food smooties with greens, fruits, and veggies but not sure if this will work. I won't have the budget for a vitamix for quite some time and I wasted $30 on a Jack LaLanne that "had a leak" which ended up having the bearing completely shot from the rust of leaking. When looking to fix it it seems to be a very common problem with no spare parts available.

Anyway, has anyone tried this? I put a whole apple in it and it chopped it up into pieces and then I added a half a cup of water and it smoothed it out pretty good. It also has a food chute. Any tips to try to see if it can handle making raw food stuff or not? I could return it if it doesn't do what I would like.