I have the 590 and I am loving it. Except for piecing! Yikes! Anyway, I am finally figuring out how to piece on it but in all honesty my recommendation would be to get the 590 but DO NOT trade in your 440! I had a 630 that I traded in and I have since bought at Bernina red machine to replace it the 630 and I have actually pieced my half square triangle blocks on this little machine, I have finally figured out how to piece them on my 590 but it does involve getting the right stitch plate on (single hole or optional 5mm plate if you opt to use the 1 foot), the right foot, using the knee lift, turning off the "hover" function if you have it on and whatever else you want to do. On my little red machine or on your 440, you can just sit down and basically go! However, the 590 is so wonderful in all the other ways, I love all the stitching and all the ways that you can set up the machine to do what you want it to do...If you want a knot at the beginning and end you can do that, if you just want it to 5-6 tiny stitches to start or ty-off you can set that up, ect! I have not done much embroidery on it yet, but what I have done was wonderful and again so many options you can do on the screen without additional software. I would not get the additional software as it is pricey unless you know already you really want to do a lot of fancy editing and stitch creation. I can on the 590 take the stitches that are already on the sewing side and bring them over to the embroidery side and even set the up to use as a background stitch. Oh my, now I would absolutely recommend taking every class you can when you first get your machine. Again, this machine was designed for advanced sewers who know what they want, and it does definitely have a learning curve as you learn all the things this beast can do. There are other Bernina machines that also do embroidery like the 535 which has a 5mm feed dog. I have not tried that model. I had a 570 prior to my 590 which I had problems with I truly think it was a lemon, I traded up for the 590 and am so glad I did. I have had other Bernina's prior to the 570 and almost considered changing brands after the problems I had with it but am glad I got the 590