Screen-driven machines · review
Brother's upper-mid computerised machine: 140 stitches, ten buttonhole styles, an automatic thread cutter and a 3.5-inch screen. One reference across the whole of Europe, absent from the US.
The bottom line The buttonhole handling and the thread cutter are the reasons to buy it. The stitch count is not.
Hands-on testing pending. Everything below is either a manufacturer specification, cited as such, or something we verified ourselves.
What we verified. The reference B01LZEG15B designates this machine on
amazon.de, .fr, .it, .es and .co.uk, confirmed on EAN. It is absent from
amazon.com, so a reader in the United States is sent to a local Amazon search
rather than to a dead product page.
What the manufacturer states. 140 stitches including 10 buttonhole styles, 5 uppercase alphabets, a 3.5-inch LCD, LED work lighting, an extra-comfort needle threader, automatic bobbin winding and an automatic thread cutter. Listed weight 10.0 kg.
Which of those you will actually use. The thread cutter and the buttonhole programmes, daily. The alphabets, once, to see whether they look good — they are uppercase only, which rules out most name labels. The remaining decorative stitches are the part of the specification that sells the machine and then sits unused, and no honest review should pretend otherwise.
Where we would look before buying. Whether the automatic thread cutter leaves a long enough tail to start the next seam without re-threading. It is the sort of detail that decides whether an automation saves time or creates a new chore, and it never appears on a specification sheet.
| Type | Computerised |
|---|---|
| Stitches | 140, including 10 buttonhole styles (manufacturer) |
| Lettering | 5 alphabets, uppercase only |
| Screen | 3.5 in LCD |
| Thread cutter | Automatic |
| Weight | 10.0 kg |
Mostly a spec-sheet number — but the ten buttonhole styles inside it are not. A machine that measures your button and sews the matching buttonhole in one step removes the most error-prone operation in garment sewing. That is what you are paying for, not the 130 decorative stitches.
Ten kilos here buys a larger chassis, a screen, a thread cutter and the motor to drive them, not extra piercing power. Weight indicates build on mechanical machines; on computerised ones it mostly indicates size.
Computerised · 50 stitches · LCD
The computerised bernette, listed with 50 stitches and an LCD display, and carrying one single reference on all six Amazon stores.
Best for: Someone stepping up from a mechanical machine who wants stitch selection on a screen
≈ $600 / £380 / 455 €
40 stitches · LCD · free arm · 2.95 kg
Brother's light computerised machine: 40 stitches, an LCD, a needle threader and a free arm, at just under three kilos. One reference on all six Amazon stores we checked.
Best for: Light dressmaking, alterations and a first machine that has to live in a cupboard
≈ 200 €
Computerised · DE, IT, GB only
Janome's computerised mid-range machine, and the first of three Janome models we found absent from the French and Spanish catalogues.
Best for: German, Italian and British readers who want a Janome computerised machine
≈ £350 / 430 €
