Premier P212X Polyboard 12 Inch Guillotine Paper Cutter

Durability is one thing to look for when selecting a guillotine paper cutter. One that's particularly durable is Martin Yale's Premier P212X. Check out its strengths and weaknesses to determine if it's the cutter for you.

Strengths:

• The P212X has a 12-inch cutting length. This makes it great for trimming letter-sized paper that is 8.5" x 11". You can also use this cutter to trim photographs and smaller pieces of paper.

• Unlike most of the guillotine paper cutters on the market that have either wood or metal bases, the P212X's base is made out of Polyboard. Polyboard is essentially plastic that's unbreakable. It also helps make this device lightweight - it only weighs 5 pounds - as well as durable.

• This trimmer has a blade that's self-sharpening so it doesn't require any maintenance. The blade is made out of stainless steel so it's very durable and can be used frequently.

• The P212X was designed to be safe to use. There's a torsion spring that helps keep the blade in place unless you raise or lower it manually. When you lower it, it will automatically lock into place for your safety. Also, your hands will be kept away from the blade because this trimmer has a finger guard. And the entire thing will stay in one place because it has non-skid rubber feet on the bottom.

• Whether you prefer the metric system to the standard one (or vice versa), you'll be able to use the measuring system of your choice. That's because this trimmer has an alignment grid with both standard and metric measurements. The grid's squares are 0.5" wide which is pretty standard.

• Finally, the P212X comes with a year-long warranty that covers everything, including the blade. Not a lot of warranties for trimmers cover the blade, so this is a very nice thing to have.

Weaknesses:

• The P212X doesn't have the best cutting capacity in the world. It can only cut 10 sheets of paper at a time. While this may be good enough for smaller jobs, it means this wouldn't be a great device to use for large cutting jobs unless you have a lot of time to kill.

• While the cutting length makes this device good for trimming letter-sized documents, you should choose a different device if you need to work with large sheets of paper.

• Unlike some of the other trimmers on the market, this one only has an alignment grid. There are no other cutting guides.

Conclusion: Overall, the Premier P212X has some really great features that should be appealing if you're in need of a guillotine paper cutter. It's really durable, for one thing, and it's safe to use so you can cut all you want without getting hurt. The warranty is pretty good and the alignment grid will come in handy. However, the cutting capacity isn't large enough for big jobs, so you'll need to take that into consideration. If the capacity is big enough for you, then check out the P212X today.