I have a HM Pro, SFX, Atmosphere, and X-Con and have played the DM2, Revolution, and SR-71. It’s a huge spectrum. Upfront, I’m not very good at 5A.
SFX is the most unique, best-looking of the bunch, and has a high performance shape. My favorite (I think…).
HM Pro is quite undersized and an extremely comfortable. Love it.
The Atmosphere is incredibly stable (brass rims) and is the best grinder (textured plastic), and undersized. Removing the caps can get you down in the weight range of the others on the list if you need to. HM Pro comes in second for grinding.
Revolution may have the same textured plastic as the Atmosphere, but you’d have to double check. I forget, it’s been a while.
The SR-71 is a stable, well-rounded, comfortable, smooth, full-sized player. It’s the one I would get, especially if it’s nickel plated. Too many pros. I’d have to really think hard to come up with a con. It would probably grind fine too. Yeah and stuff.
I don’t think so. The nickel plating gives it a harder surface and probably gives it a different look. According to some online resources, aluminum actually has a lower coefficient of friction than nickel, so nickel could actually be worse. Of course, they don’t list the COF of skin or fabric on aluminum or nickel, but I assume they correlate.
Short story: I don’t think nickel plating helps grinding.