I have three Stihl hedge trimmers. The first one is a dedicated trimmer with the space between the teeth fairly large. It will eat thicker branches very well and it is not heavy. However, it is usually the wife who trims hedges while I am at work, and she is vertically challenged and has a tough time with the dedicated machine. We also have the Stihl power head system. That way we can swap out the implements and save some money on power tools.
We have two Stihl implements for hedge trimming that fit with those power heads. One is a straight implement that gave my wife some reach with the trimmer, and it worked well for her for most things. However, there were times when she did not have the right angle she wanted. In all fairness, that is only because she wanted to use the hedge trimmer to trim off saplings sprouting up around tree roots. She wanted to use it as a weed eater. We bought the hedge trimmer that has the adjustable head so it mounts at an angle. It is also very handy for tall hedges when I want to trim the top off.
Since my wife has shoulder trouble (as well as I), I got here the recoil start power head which has lower horsepower than mine. Either one runs the trimmers well.
The dedicated on with the wide tooth spacing? Not heavy and plenty of power.
The power head models are heavier but have longer reach and narrower spacing between teeth, so they don't cut the thicker branches as well.
