I'm partial to Takeuchi because i've owned 2 of their minis going over 10 years but comparing to a Cat 305.5 to the 153 which is also a 5.5 ton machine the digging power is similar, but it doesn't lift near as much (machine is pretty beat up so maybe getting tired). The the side to side boom is just too useful not to have and makes so many things faster, I would never own a mini without one.