I purchased the hand weeder tool thinking I would use it for smaller weeds around the yard and for potted plants. Like the larger weeder tool, for ease of use, the hand weeder is great. It does indeed do a good job of getting the weeds out, but it tends to disturb the dirt a LOT more than the full size weeder. I will say, a part of this is due to the terrible, hard soil I have here in the high desert of California, but climate/soil conditions notwithstanding, the full size weed tool just doesn't disturb the adjacent soil as much as the small weeder tool. If you don't mind a lot of dirt coming up with the weed then this tool might be a good fit for smaller weeds in your garden or potted plants.
The full size weeder also has a pincer action that tends to pull all, or at least a very sizable chunk, of the tap root out; the smaller weeder tool lacks this so you end up sticking the fork into the tap root to get it out, and that just doesn't work as well in my experience.
