Get a Spinfire Pro 2. Internal oscillation is a great feature to have. My machine has been very reliable in all aspects. Also, terrific customer service.
I have been going back and forth quite a bit on the internal vs external oscillation feature. It seems to be one of the big things other than portability and programmability, that seems to be a defining feature with ball machines. I haven't had good experiences in Canada with companies that choose to have a sole retailer for a product as does Spinfire here. Our country is less than 1/10 the market of the US, and fewer people play tennis year round per capita due to our weather, so Mamba Tennis, the exclusive US retailer of the Spinfire Pro 1 & 2 likely does 15x the volume that our exclusive retailer does and can maintain a much higher parts inventory and provide better support. Spinfire being based in Australia doesn't help as parts have to come from there. That said, I don't have an anecdotal stories on how good or bad the exclusive retailer in Canada, Vital Sports in Montreal, Quebec, is. Silent Partner is located in West Hill, Ontario which is a suburb of Toronto, just a 1/2 hour drive where I live and they assemble their machines there from parts they source around the world (likely mostly China). Their support appears to be second to none from the reports I have read on here. One telling aspect about the two machines is that Silent Partner can deliver in a few days, whereas there is a 5-week lead time on the Spinfire Pro 2. So, it's obvious that the Canadian retailer of the Spinfire keeps no inventory and orders only when they make sales. If so, how good can their support possibly be? Not an issue if there are never any problems with the machine of course and I do think problems with either brand will be close to non-existent and even if they do occur would be temporary.
Nonetheless, support aside, I have to admit I am torn between the SP Smart and the Spinfire Pro 2. The configurable parameters of speed, spin, feed interval and oscillation are pretty well the same on each machine but the degree of programmability is different with the SP Smart being far greater. Both are programmable for 2-line narrow/medium/wide drill, random vertical and medium/wide horizontal oscillation and 'triple oscillation' (SP calls this 'all-court oscillation'). However, with the SP Smart is appears the triple/all-court oscillation only allows topspin to be used and not backspin/slice. The manual is ambiguous as to whether the Spinfire Pro 2 allows both spins in that mode so I have emailed them to ask but have not heard back yet (does anyone know?).
Where they really differ in programmability is that the SP also has 3 presets for match play (5/8/10 shots, 8/12/18 sec rally interval and selectable speed, spin, feed) and a 'select-a-drill' feature where you can enter sequences of ball locations that you want played and replayed which includes 10 different angle ranges of ball throws. On top of that the SP allows you to memorize interval, spin, speed & height to recall it later no matter what settings you use in between, whereas the Spinfire Pro 2 only recalls the settings from before you turned the machine off last.
So, with the Spinfire Pro 2 I am trading internal oscillation for less programmability. Is the extra programmability of the SP Smart just gimmicks that may not really be of value to me and therefore not used much? Perhaps, but there is no way of knowing unless I use the machine. In that respect Silent Partner may have a slight advantage over Spinfire Pro 2 as the former has this:
'Satisfaction warranty: If within a period of 30 days days from the receipt of the machine you are not satisfied with it, you can return it for a full refund of its purchase price (not including shipping charges)'. I could try it for 30 days and it would cost me nothing to return it as I would just drop it off with my car. But then what if I do return it and then buy the Spinfire Pro 2 and then feel I liked the SP Smart better? I'll be stuck with the Spinfire Pro 2. Of course, worse things could happen than to be stuck with a ball machine that some prefer!
With sales tax, the SP Smart would cost me $2,000 CDN delivered to my home and the Spinfire Pro 2 would be $2,400 CDN. Not a biggie but $2,000 is already much more than I wanted to spend.
Am I over-thinking this? Not for a minute. It's not a small purchase in terms of dollars and it is something I am going to be using for hours on end for years to come. I do realize, btw, that this choice is personal and something no one can answer for me but the perspectives people have kindly provided on here about the machines they own or have tried certainly has helped me a great deal.