To note the PS is 450KHz as well. That has some advantages as the power supply is fairly simple (MOSFET class C amplifier + SWR bridge) if it goes wonky
The T12 has the equivalent of the tip and the cartridge in one unit and the handle separately. It works pretty well but the engineering tolerances of the handles are terrible as are the contact mounts. I was not impressed. For 20% more cost, they could have put together a 100% better iron that would literally shat on the competition on price/performance. But as always they missed the mark in the race to the bottom.
EDITED to clarify: bd - as much as I love my MetCal, the OLED T12 controller is not the POS you keep painting it to be. It does have its plus side.
I've said before that there is a huge variation in QC on these things; especially the handles. It's unreasonable to lump the entire species in together because you got one poorly designed handle and one controller that couldn't handle short-circuit conditions. In the OLED T12's defense, short-circuit protection is very difficult to implement here because of the way the T12 system monitors temp between swings of the PWM cycle. And their firmware implementation beats everything Hakko has EVER made hands-down.
Buy a genuine Hakko handle and you can be sure to get a good socket in it. Or buy 2 or 3 cheap handles for $7 each and chuck the crap ones. 
mnem
I'm going to be thoroughly frank but no they are dangerous, poorly manufactured crap.
That was the result of my thorough evaluation of the design when I actually considered importing thousands of the things and reselling them here in Europe. Yes I had a legitimate business plan. They fit a really good niche. They are cheap and pretty good when they work.
BUT the negatives didn't make commercial sense because I couldn't overcome the following issues:
1. The mains inlet mounting is ridiculously dangerous.
2. The earthing is ridiculously dangerous.
3. The handle tolerances are so poor that the failure rate is likely too high to be commercially viable.
4. The shipped power supply module in my mains one missed all the common mode filtering that should have been in there.
5. The cabling in the handpiece is borderline inadequate for the load.
6. The tip lifetime (element and sensor, not the actual metal) is really poor.
7. The default failure modes all turn the tip into a glowing orange fire starter.
8. The shitty encoder moves the unit around when you poke it (usability)
9. The secondary failure mode is exploding MOSFET.
10. Default set up isn't ESD safe.
11. EMC?? Bwuhahahaha
Just no. It's a shitty bit of low ball engineering. If they threw some more effort in, it'd be worth it but this doesn't cut it. Nowhere near.
This is alpha quality hardware. Perhaps in a few years when they've rounded off the cut corners...
Again... you're faulting the controller (the only part I give flying fuck about) for the crimes committed by people trying to turn the thing into a commercial product and cutting corners with cheap clone tips (obvi, if you're getting 10 tips for $22, QC is gonna be an issue... I've always said you should buy genuine Hakko for the tips you use most) and cheapest possible clone handles (same caveats) and cheapest possible commodity SMPS.
The reason these blow up AND are a firetrap is because the people making the "retail product" pair the controller up with the cheapest POS SMPS they could put in a box. That is NOT the fault of the controller or its design; the folks behind the open-source design repeatedly tell you to use a CV/CC power source like I did for this very reason. Then all your laundry list of evils turns into a "power-cycle it; figure out why it stopped working" problem. As I said before; the way these controllers work makes it very difficult to implement short-circuit protection in the controller; it needs to be in the power supply.
You're blaming the open-source project for the sins of China-direct manufacturing shitstains. Lets put the blame directly where it belongs; those ignorant resellers who pair it with a shitty SMPS with no short-circuit protection. The people who designed the controller did so with high goals for a bit hobbyist gear; they were not designing to a price but for pure performance and usability.
Here's primarily where I disagree with you: If you use a decent power supply and a decent handle with it, even these cheaply-manufactured
controllers can give you a decent soldering station. But you have to be smarter than they are.
mnem
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