I have Aoyue version of this knock-off. It's way different in design. It was about 40$ shipped.
There are crimped connectors, actual metal stand, replaceable fuse, LM324 comparator circuit & optocoupler etc.
Transformer is way smaller though.
But the problem is that it broke after 2 weeks. I'm not even kidding.
But I bought it from reputable seller, Wiltec. They politely just sent me a new piece for warranty without even asking for it.
And it broke too. Not even kidding. I'm not surprised though, the PCB looks like it was recovered from a WW2 submarine. Even the IC leads are totally covered with green corrosion stuff. Although you can't see it in the image, the PCB quality in the other one is OK.
The first one didn't heat up anymore, and the second one blew the fuses IIRC because of the soldering handle element.
I was able to combine 1 working unit out of the 2, and by switching the heating elements(both units came with a spare one) I got the both handles working. Ironically I had to get another 5$ solder iron to fix these damn things.
I have no idea what is wrong with the another one, I can't get my head around analog circuits. The LM314 is only getting 1.8V for some reason in the faulty one. 5V in the working one.
If anyone has some ideas what I could try. I have working unit that I can compare voltages to.
Anyways, I can recommend Wiltec as a store for sure(they sell these multiple variations of Aoyue stations), but you might want to go with older Hakko's if you can get one for 100-150$.?
I looked for the real deal, but I wasn't able to get one in Finland shipped for under 150$.
There are multiple variations of this thing:
936 - 35W analog (30€)
936A - 60W analog (80€)
937 - 50W digital with dial (55€)
937+ - 50W digital with buttons (60€)
950 - 60W SMD tweezer handle (60€)
3210 - 70W, digital (70€)
Here's images of the Aoyue 936, the cheapest of them all:
I wouldn't be too conserned about the quality of the more priced ones. They could've cut way costs in detail with this if they wanted to. They also seem to incorporate some of their own design in it too. For the price it's okay. It has worked well since I repaired it. If you put a price on your time, this iron would've cost me like 150$.