Review

The Atten ST-826D works beautifully! I have assembled my first PCB as a test using the Chipquick TS391LT from Eleshop (138 degree melting point solder paste) and it look excellent under the microscope. I've soldered leadless components with thermal pads and SMD discrete components down to 0603. I had to reduce the airflow to 20% as the default 50% blew the components off the PCB - holding the button for a couple of seconds saves your settings. The front panel controls are simple to use and the construction looks solid. The stand is heavy and very stable. I was worried that the thick hose might be awkward to use but it is much more flexible than I expected. It is obviously more expensive than a normal cheap soldering iron but for SMD work the results are excellent and this allows me to solder devices I couldn't use before. Another major benefit is that if you need to, you can easily remove components again without damaging the device or the PCB and then replace them. I will try the higher melting point paste in the future.
The Eleshop video comparing the various hot air units was very clear and helpful (although I do not have any experience with the other units shown in the video).
The ESD ground cable has a 4mm plug on each end + a crocodile clip - personally, a "button" style connector would have been nice to connect to my EMC ground plug (Eleshop " ESD aardestekker geel") but the 4mm plug is pretty generic.