I was very excited to receive the Oster 2577 6-Speed Hand Mixer as a gift last December. The retractable cord is a very nice feature. I also like the attachments that came with the mixer. However, those features do not compensate for the major flaw of the mixer. As other reviewers have stated, the speed control is very poorly designed. In fact, I thought the mixer was broken the first time I used it. There are no stirring or blending speeds. The lowest of the six speeds is so fast that I imagine it's near the highest speed on most hand mixers. I really wanted to like the mixer, and so tried it several times throughout the year. Frankly, I now avoid using it. I prefer to pull out my stand mixer, which is not convenient, to trying to control the mess the Oster hand mixer tends to make as it splashes ingredients all over the surrounding counter top.