I just picked up a Stihl FS131R today, it's in the same league as the trimmers you mentioned. I was on vacation for two weeks and when I got home the grass was knee high in places, so I spent about 5 hours with it trimming and knocking down tall grass. I'm completely satisfied. This is my first Stihl, I have always shied away from them because I felt a 2-stroke would always be better for this application, and I was under the assumption that Stihl went the 4-stroke route primarily for eco reasons, not power or other attributes that might benefit the consumer. On a whim I decided to try them and proved myself wrong. This trimmer mows circles around my Echo SRM-266 (which itself is no slouch)-- I can literally trim/mow tall grass and light brush in half the time. Hit the throttle, the thing snaps to life and doesn't bog down. The Echo (SRM-266) is a beast at sustained full throttle, but this Stihl can do most light to moderate trimming not too far past idle. In the thick stuff medium to full throttle impressed the heck out of me. But then it ought to outperform the SRM-266 since it cost $130 more-- I haven't used the SRM-3020 but expect it would be a fine machine. If you're dead set against Stihl, I'd recommend the Echo. I pretty much swore off any trimmer except Echo after I bought my SRM-266- better trimmer in every way than anything I'd used prior. But I could not find a high end Echo trimmer locally, so I tried the Stihl and am glad I did.
