i must admit i love it.... tho i cant get used to the hose hanging around me yet.. but i will. 
Gazza,
I thought exactly the same after I wore out my 18 foot Ionics telescopic pole; it was my first pole.
But an external pole hose has it's advantages; I promise.
Have you tried to extend a pole with internal pole hose and it's all twisted and won't fit through the hole at the bottom of your hose? That's a pain; and the friction of the hose passing through the pole as you extend it can make it more effort to lengthen the pole too; which mightn't sound much, but come Friday after a whole week of doing it again-and-again, day-in-day-out; it must add up to some calories burnt and sore shoulders.
But with a light-weight modular pole with an external pole hose, after cleaning the 'tops', you can just pop-off the section of the pole you don't require, lean it against the building, and crack on. It takes about two seconds; it takes longer to adjust the goose kneck to get the brush at the right angle for the ground floor work.
Not only that; for ground floor work when you're in a really tight-area, you can remove all the pole - quickly and easily - and still use the brush head; you can't do that with an internal hose pole.