A lot of people will say that the original Grigri is still the way to go and to an extent I agree, however it's down to personal needs. My local climbing wall uses 11mm ropes on top rope which is the top end the Grigri 2 can take and I find that it struggles to cope with the thickness especially when the ropes are getting older. Personally I wouldn't use the Grigri 2 with any rope bigger than 10mm thick. When it comes to leading though when I am using either my 9.2mm or my 10mm rope the Grigri 2 works extremely well. Operating is just the same as the original but it seems to be slightly smoother and more sensitive, so as long as you are using thin ropes I would go with the Grigri 2 and save that little bit on space and weight.