It's good, not great. About right for the price.
This sharpener is good, not great, but probably right for the price. I sharpened a bunch of pencils in a row (we homeschool) and it ran smoothly about 90% of the time. There were a few clunky starts, nothing dramatic but not perfect. Also, and this is the reason for the lack of stars; the drawer is a bit of a pain. When you sharpen, of course there are shavings in the small drawer which is accessible right on the front, below the hole. Well, when you go to put the drawer back in, it's a tiny bit of a struggle. There is a small plastic `tube' or offshoot in the back of the drawer and you have to line it up with a hole inside the machine. Because the drawer is a rather cheap plastic, as is the tube/offshoot, I had the feeling it would break if I let my kids use it. Decent length cord, about as noisy as any X-Acto electric sharpener.