They're definitely amazing for the price. I like that you can do quick back and forth with them. but they're not very smart. When I need something to actually analyze or write good code and not just refactor and move things around, they're not good for that.
Agreed. For harder tasks, I like to go to GPT 5 thinking mode, but I'm considering other options.
Some times I've had faster success with some of the larger Qwen3 models (480B and 235B variants). I like them in combination with the Repomix CLI to copy an entire project into context and get a response very quickly with some of the accelerated providers like Cerebras.
