I'd want to know more about it - and this Apollo company. Anyone heard of it? Any reviews online for it?

I think you might be onto something. I just looked at the installation guide for the OTR and it looks surprisingly similar to the Advantium installation guide. Almost like the same OEM manufacturer. Worth looking into, but I can't comment on it. I own an Advantium OTR.

LG is the producer of the Advantium for GE under GE's patent. They had/have an agreement that was set to run out sometime soon, if I recall correctly. (I haven't talked to a LG rep who knew a darn thing about anything in years.) At that poing LG was planning on making their own version for market. This isn't it, and it's not technically a "speed cooker" It's a convection microwave, although a pretty powerful one. It lacks the halogen crisper that the Advantium does and relies more on microwave energy than the convection in order to cook items. It's convection element didn't seem that powerful to me, and I'd suspect uneven browning in person. I'd really like to see this in person, but I suspect that most food produced from it will be unevenly cooked, as the cooker relies more on MW energy for cooking than using a quartz browning element like the Advantium does. Unless the microwave contains an inverter, which a quick perusal of the specs didn't lead me to believe it had.

Jscout, how often do you use your Advantium?

Live_Wire_Oak, thanks for the inside info. Since we're still just lining up things, hopefully this type of oven will be mass marketed bringing down the price in general. Thanks for explaining what to look for in general. Your explanation made so much sense (maybe you can sub for the LG rep sometimes ;)

Being that we aren't going very extravagant on any of our other kitchen options, it would be nice to treat ourselves to something I THINK we'd use quite often being that it's just my DH and I.

Jscout, how often do you use your Advantium?

Live_Wire_Oak, thanks for the inside info. Since we're still just lining up things, hopefully this type of oven will be mass marketed bringing down the price in general. Thanks for explaining what to look for in general. Your explanation made so much sense (maybe you can sub for the LG rep sometimes ;)

Being that we aren't going very extravagant on any of our other kitchen options, it would be nice to treat ourselves to something I THINK we'd use quite often being that it's just my DH and I.

I use mine weekly, mostly for MW. We have a preschooler, and the speedcooking comes in handy for frozen chicken nuggets and the like. I also use it for toasting and broiling. During the holidays, it served as an overflow oven, like making lasagna. The warming feature works well too. I've only used it to cook an entire meal once, when my kitchen wasn't ready yet. Was it worth it? I think so, because I combined several appliances and mounted it over the counter so I saved space.

From the looks of this, it is a 'typical' convection microwave. It does have a bit more power than the GE or the Sharp, but it works pretty much the same. The one thing they don't tell you is what percentage of mw power is being used in the combo modes, so you have to trust their times. Or learn the cooking times yourself.

The Advantium's advantage is that it has those quartz heating elements in the top. These brown things more quickly than a plain convection oven that doesn't have them.

Personally I never used the combi functions on the Sharp. I couldn't do the math in my head (a 5lb chicken normally roasted at 375* takes how long at 300* and %30 power?). I always used it either/or, same for the GE I have now.