If your soldering iron uses the old style of slip-on tips, then the Pinecil would represent a significant upgrade. Cartridge-style tips have really rendered older irons obsolete and allow something as cheap and simple as a Pinecil to have genuinely excellent performance.

Brands like AiXun and Handskit make inexpensive stations that are compatible with JBC C215/C245 cartridges, which gives you a ridiculous level of performance for the price.

Also, don't sleep on knife tips. For a long time I thought that the Chinese phone repair guys were goofy for using them so much, but they were right, I was an idiot and I now use them 99% of the time.