I loved the idea of a panini press many Cuban sandwiches to "test" out the press, absolutely delicious!!! It does have a sear mode, (450º) not too bad of a sear but I'll stick to my cast iron for that. Not sure if most presses require you to press for it, at work we had a press that did the pressing for you... that was nice. I'm not disappointed and I'm happy for my purchase.