It was cheap, and it kept the rain out. Unfortunately, on my one, the velcro on the arms was already ineffective from the moment I received it, so I was a bit bummed about that--the velcro strap keeps dangling about. It would be nice with more pockets. I'm not entirely sure how windproof this thing is, it didn't seem to work brilliantly for me, but maybe that's just me.
I thought a shell would be good, because depending on the weather, you could add however much underneath it. In the end though, I don't use it as much as I thought I would, because having only one pocket is a tad annoying.