Adequate.

I have spent the last 30 days using this grinder in preparation for this review.  As someone who recommends and sells coffee equipment, I just decided that I should not pass up the opportunity to try one of these out.  A good grinder will be the most important piece of equipment that a coffee drinker will own, and it should be capable of performing the task at hand.  So, how does Breville's fairly recent addition to the market do?

The Breville is a very solid looking piece of equipment.  But, its stainless steel veneer adds only the appearance of durability.  It is otherwise a plastic housing that contains the motor and hardened steel burrs.  Both the bean hopper and the grounds receptacle are made from pretty thin plastic, giving an unnecessarily flimsy appearance to this otherwise good machine.  However, in the 30 days I have been using this grinder, not one piece of plastic has broken, chipped, or even cracked. 
I feel that Breville tried to be a little too clever in desigining this thing.  First of all, there is an on/off switch on the side.  The machine must first be switched on, and then you adjust the timer knob, and push the start button.  This seems a little akward and unnecessary, and I've found myself wondering if it is supposed to be switched off while not in use in order to prevent electrical drain from my wall outlet.  This is no big deal, but it just seems like an afterthought, something someone decided it needed for some unknown reason.  And I absolutely hate anything about an appliance that is built in for no perceivable reason except to attempt to demonstrate the designer's cleverness.
A particularly irritating feature of this grinder is the lack of grind setting adjustment marks on the bean hopper.  There are markings giving general locations for different levels of coarseness, but you have to remember about the number of clicks you have turned the hopper to adjust the grind when turning it back to a previous setting. There are also no markings on the timer knob, but since it does not move once set, this is only a problem when resetting the grinder from extremely coarse to extremely fine (the finer the grind, the longer it takes to grind a given amount of coffee).
Okay, so how does it perform?  The designers did one thing right on this thing; they designed the grinding chamber to be no larger than absolutely necessary to accomplish the task of grinding coffee.  This means minimal stale grinds build up inside the grinder.  And the steel burrs appear to have been machined in a much more refined manner than on other grinders in this class.  However, this probably isn't anything that will actually translate to a more consistent grind.  But it's nice to see this kind of attention to detail.

This grinder is relatively quite, and it seems to grind faster than the Infinity.  However, I have found that the grind consistency, though excellent in the mid range (or 'fine') for drip coffee, isn't what it should be.  When rotating the adjustment to the coarse end of the 'plunger' setting, the grind begins to get inconsistent.  I end up with a mixture of medium/coarse grinds, and chunks.  Turning the setting even further up toward 'percolator' yields even more inconsistency.  However, given that these coarse settings are far too coarse for anything but campfire coffee (throw the grinds into the water kind of brewing), there is no reason to even set the grinder to this level.

I place a great deal of importance on a product's ability to do what it is designed to do, and what the manufacturer intends for it to do.  This grinder is designed to work at a range from coarse for percolator to extra fine for turkish coffee.  Now, realistically, I absolutely know that a conical burr grinder in this price range is not going to grind fine enough for turkish coffee.  However, at its finest setting, this grinder will not grind fine enough for any espresso machine using anything other than a pressurized porta filter.  I called Breville's customer service with the complaint that the grinder does not go fine enough for espresso, and was told that on its finest 'espresso' setting, it will grind fine enough for use with Breville's Cafe Roma espresso machine, one that uses a pressurized porta filter.  It will, at best, grind fine enough for a stovetop moka pot.

Being predominately plastic, this grinder is capable of producing a great deal of static.  I have noticed that this varies greatly depending on the level of darkness of the roast.  Medium roasts and darker will produce lots of static.  And the static can be extremely bad, leaving more mess than my Braun KMM-30 (that's bad).  With a med/dark roast Columbian, merely lifting the lid to the grounds receptacle results in cloud of grounds lifting itself from the container to drift out and up, all over whatever may be at hand (wall, counter, my hand, the coffee maker). 

The level of consistency that this grinder exhibits within the fine to medium range is fantastic.  As long as I don't set it at the higher end of 'plunger' it does a very good job for French press coffee.  For drip grind coffee, it performs excellent, though this is a wash since consistent grind isn't as important for drip coffee.  The static, though to be expected with a mostly plastic grinder, can be pretty terrible. I'm still not convinced that the flimsy plastic grounds receptacle isn't goind to break in my hand.  So, how do I feel it stacks up against other grinders?

Okay, for $99 you really get what you pay for.  However, at ten bucks less, you can pick up an Infinity that will have the same static issues, but has a more useful grind range.  While I can find no fault with the build quality of the Breville, I just do not feel that it performs up to its capabilities.  Breville really could have made this a much better grinder than they did, but they didn't.  But still, it's a well made machine.  However, it does not do what it is supposedly designed to do (unless you have a Breville Cafe Roma), and that loses it a star right there.  Breville's customer service telling me I should by a Cafe Roma if I want to use this grinder for espresso also loses it another star in my book.  Just the very notion of one piece of equipment being proprietary to another in other does not set well with me.

For automatic drip coffee, I can use a Krups fast touch grinder, and the coffee will be no different.  I will never have a need for coffee ground so coarse it can be used as birdshot, and a grind that is too fine for stovetop moka pots, but not fine enough for espresso is useless.  So, basically, the Breville is good for.....  What is it good for, come to think of it?  You don't need a $99 conical burr grinder for drip coffee.  If you need a grinder for French press, the Breville is a good grinder; but the Infinity is better (and ten bucks less).  I don't dislike this grinder, I just don't see that it brings anything to the market that isn't already out there.

03/04/09 update.  Since writing this original review, the grinder has developed a problem with the timer.  After talking with some other Breville owners, this appears to be a not to uncommon ocurrence.  The grinder will run for randomly different lengths of time, even when kept on the same timer and grind settings, grinding from a scoop or two over, or under the prescribed amount.  This has been happening for about the last month, with the amount of over/under grind gradually increasing.  The amount of time it runs over or under is completely random, but it grinds over or under the amount on a consistent basis.  Breville is going to replace at no cost to me, which I appreciate.

03/21/09 update.  Received the replacement unit from Breville the other day.  Immediatelynoticed a problem with the timer know seeming a bit difficult to turn, and having to fiddle with the bean hopper to get it lined up just so to remove it and put it back on. The unit also had a couple small dents in the housing.  Called Breville with these concerns, and they said this was normal.  In the one day I have been using the replacement unit, the timer knob has become very difficult to turn, and the lid to the bean hopper does not fit tightly at all (like on the last one).  I am rather disgusted with this turn of events