Seems to work as advertised

I was conflicted about buying a steam mop; the reviews on various brands indicated wildly differing experiences. On top of that, I have a Swiffer that I never use, and was afraid that a steam mop might end up in the same closet with the Swiffer. I have always resorted to the sponge mop and bucket, but the idea of not having to deal with a bucket of water was why I got the Swiffer (which I never really took to). The fundamental concept of no bucket was too appealing to not give it a try.
I narrowed it down to the Shark Steam Mop and the Reliable Steamboy. Finally chose the Steamboy, primarily because I believe it is made in Italy and not China. I tried it for the first time today, and I am happy with the results. I didn't observe a totally blackened pad but I have a smallish kitchen and very small bathroom so there wasn't a lot of territory to cover.
I would agree with other reviews I have read that state that you *have* to wait until the microfiber pad becomes saturated before trying to mop, or there is too much friction with the floor and the pad comes off. The manual said to wait 20 seconds after plugging the unit in before attempting to generate steam, which I did. Then it took another 20 or 30 seconds for the water to work its way through the unit once I did depress the steam trigger (which the manual describes, and only happens the first time you use the unit). Subsequent to those minor startup delays, it probably took a minute or so before the pad reached the point of saturation where I could really mop.
I'm not so sure that the triangular head does much to improve accessibility over a rectangular headed mop; as a matter of fact with the triangular shape, you no longer have a "short dimension" that you can slide into narrow slots like between the refrigerator and the cabinet.
The instructions say that you can use tap water, but I chose to use distilled water since theoretically there won't be any mineralization to eventually plug up the replaceable filter cartridge. Some reviews I have read stated that they used hot tap water to speed up the "warm up" cycle, but I just poured in room temperature distilled water and it worked fine. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to nuke the water first but I didn't mind to wait the few extra seconds that might be saved. Probably take longer to nuke than just waiting anyhow. For those using tap water, I'll leave it to the more OC to do a comparison and let us know. A table of water temperature versus startup time, please (LOL)!!! The reservoir holds approximately 26 ounces which is supposed to last 20 minutes. I only filled it half full and I'd estimate it took close to 10 minutes to do both rooms with the steam trigger depressed the entire time, and I still had a couple of ounces of water left, so I'd say 20 minutes on a full tank seems right. I could have finished in quite a lot less time but I really wanted to give the floors a good going over. You can remove and refill the tank as needed so there wouldn't be any significant disruption if the need arose.
The package I purchased came with 4 microfiber pads, which are machine washable. I wanted more than one or two, that way I'm not liable to find myself caught without a clean microfiber pad with which to mop.
Anyway, here is my list of likes and how I think it could be improved:

LIKES
o Quick to use - no messing with a bucket of water!
o Seems to clean reasonably well
o Floors dry quickly
o No chemicals involved

WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED
o Cord is not terribly long but OK for my small place
o Cord is very stiff
o Cord clip on top cord wrap not very useful, would
rather have the cord enter the top of the unit.
o The "press and hold" trigger should either have a
trigger lock, or replace with a "click on/click off"
button.

Overall, I am pleased; most of my dislikes are rather trivial but IMHO attention to the smaller details is what makes a product go from good to outstanding. I'd say the current design falls short of outstanding, there is nothing that really sets it apart from the other choices out there. But it certainly does the job and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it as a good choice. Now to see how long the thing lasts....