Not trying to answer for Smack since your question was directed at him, but I'll throw my 2 cents in.
The 7" BP that comes with it is nice but mostly good for wool. Only 6" of it has velcro so what I did was trim the foam off around the edge that did not have velcro. Then I spun it on the tool while holding sandpaper on the edge to give it a nice finished edge. Now it looks like it came that way and 6" is more useful than 7" for me. It's a perfect fit to the 6" Hybrid Blue Foamed Wool pad.
The soft start is slightly abrupt. Hard to explain, but the initial torque is pretty strong if you pull the trigger all the way. It kinda speeds up quick then slows to speed. With that said my PE14 does it as well just to a lesser extent. I like my 849x more in every way than the PE14 except for size and weight. The DeWalt is such a well made machine.
The 849x can be had for just under $180 new including shipping. Get AG to price match... For the money it's a pretty amazing machine.