Brother or Janome (EU)

Hi all,

I’ve been sewing on an old Toshiba machine that I bought over a decade ago for about €100. I’d like to upgrade and have been researching brands/models. I like to sew clothes and the occasional household thing like curtains or a baby playmat that’s currently in my to-do list. I’m becoming a mom end of this year and I want to upgrade to a machine with more QoL features like easy threading, one-step button holes, top loading bobbin (hate the front loader I have now), etc. So I will mainly be sewing clothes.

It seems Brother and Janome are mentioned often as good brands. There are so many flavors though, it’s hard to narrow things down. Anyone here in the EU (because models across the world seem to differ) that can recommend a machine that they like, that fits my wishes? Budget would be around €1000, but can go over.

Not looking for advice that say to try out machines, I have no stores nearby, but we have a good and easy return policy here for online stores, so if it happens to be a bust I can return whatever I’m buying.

Thank you!