It does give you a serious mechanical massage that gets the job done.
Works, and feels pretty good.  We do wish it had a bigger spread of speeds in the settings.  The slowest speed is medium fast, and the other two speeds are fast, and super fast.  But if you need some serious massage work, and can't pay a professional, this is the next best thing.  Got it as a X-mas gift for my wife, and she is using it almost daily now.  She's really happy with it overall.  Not the easiest thing to use on the lower back, but it can be done if you have a squishy couch to use.
Rating: 4 stars