I am not a beginner, I own and use several detectors, I bought the F2 as a backup and vacation machine only but it was so much fun to use and found me so much so quickly that I just kept on using it more than others.
As I continued to learn and use it over the next couple of years I began to understand that it is a beginner's unit in price but not necessarily in how it works and how much it can find can find once you really learn the language.
I went on to find more clad, old coins and silver and gold jewelry using it than any others.
Can you outgrow it, sure, that can be said for most low to mid end machines, but it took me awhile to get as good as I have with it and in that time it paid for itself 10 times over.
All kinds of decent units at the $200 range, but nothing out there is as fast, has such good target separation and those very helpful VDI numbers, AND come in a package with 2 coils at that price.
Don't discount the cheap sniper coils in those multiple coil packages...that thing has found me more that the bigger coils have by far and makes it much easier to learn the F2 when you start out.