I've had every smoker/grill made from the cheap smokers that use the wood chips, cold smokers, smoke boxes, and the expensive ones like Traeger (at one point I think I had 4 or so - I had a slight addiction). Hands down the best one I've ever used is the Masterbuilt Gravity series. It uses charcoal but doesn't require a starter and will get to 500 degrees in minutes. (I do use a fire starter stick because I'm always in a hurry grilling and rather just get up and running rather than holding a lighter to it).
Also, you can add in wood chunks (about fist size) with it every time you grill. So when I do steaks I'll add in a chunk of Mesquite or Hickory and do a reverse sear at around 250 so it gets a lot of smoke flavor and then crank it up to 700 degrees for the final sear. It has built in temp probes and it costs about half of the price as my Traeger. I'll never go back, at least twice as much smoke flavor as my Traeger produced. It's a game changer flavor wise. The problem in the past with Charcoal grills is they typically take twice as long as gas...this is essentially a gas grill when it comes to how much you have to do to it and time.
For smoking the hopper is big enough to keep it going through the night so no more having to set alarms to wake up and refuel. It also has bluetooth & wifi so it connect to your phone so you can set temp alarms on that.
Something vital it has is a fan - It is impossible to get consistent outcomes smoking/grilling if you aren't moving the air and keeping it at a consistent temp. If you keep an eye out at Walmart they will drop the price to below $250 in the offseason. They go fast though, they have a cult like following on some of the smoking/grilling forums. People mod these out too, I haven't done too much to mine but a little.
Here's a pic of one identical to mine, but by Char-broil (this says it takes 20 min to get to temp, the MB takes about 12 to get to 700). I think gravity fed grills/smokers are the future for at home grilling. You used to only see them at competitions but manufactures have finally made some consumer versions. Link to what I have:
https://www.masterbuilt.com/collections ... ill-smoker