I briefly had a yum Asia panda.
It couldn't cook rice so it went back.
To be more precise it cooked incredibly firm rice no matter how much water was added (produced very firm sticky rice), how many times the rice was washed, or how long it was soaked for prior to cooking.
I've now had, and still use most weeks, 2 other yum Asia rice cookers and not had excessively firm rice with them.
Conclusion....the panda is as good at cooking rice as an actual panda.
I use, for most rice, a yum Asia bamboo rice cooker, makes good gaba rice from standard brown rice, and it also makes yumami rice, which I like. The bamboo is uses to cook most of the rice I cook.
I also have a yum Asia yum carb rice cooker. This, in yumcarb mode, produces rice which pairs best with chilli, which is practically al it gets used for. In normal rice cooker mode it's hopeless, unless preparing rice which is spiced and fried before cooking - the light frying seals the rice and then it can cook it properly, but just plain rice, of any type, washed or not, its hopeless. Yumcarb mode works because the rice is suspended in liquid above the bowl so isn't in contact with it.
But, for simplicity and options I wouldn't really suggest a rice cooker at all. A 3 litre instant pot can make pretty acceptable rice with less mess and cleanup than my rice cookers. Granted it cannot do things like gaba rice, but set against that is its capability to cook many other things as well.
All still need cleaning, at least the main pot, after each use, no way round that with anything that cooks rice.
3l instant pot, around £70, can do rices, bulk cook boiled eggs, stews, small soup, etc. For use as a rice cooker I do not recommend a larger instant pot unless you need to cook it for several people at once.
Yum Asia yum carb rice cooker, about £90 I think, but can be a PITA to clean up.
Yum Asia bamboo rice cooker, around £200 unless like me you get lucky and find one for £50. Pretty easy to clean as long as it's not allowed to get grotty. Big though, and min amount of rice that can be cooked is 2 cups, close to 300g dry rice, which is a lot for one person. Even if the unused rice is fridges and stir fried the next day(s).
I do not recommend cheap uncontrolled rice cookers. Ive had 2 or 3 over the years and they all got abandoned and shoved in a cupboard after a couple of attempts. They get messy fast, make workspaces messy etc, and tbh imo produce not great rice, often with the bottom layer burnt.
ETA one of the reasons the small instant pot wins, for me, is its got a stainless steel bowl. For rice as long as it's cleaned immediately its easy, even for brown rice. The yumcarb, and most rice cookers, uses a type if non stick, that cannot be scrubbed if needed, and does eventually wear. The bamboo uses a ceramic coated bowl, with handles, that only needs a wipe and dry once emptied.
I have had other, even more expensive/capable rice cookers, with fully ceramic bowls, but they went back as fully ceramic bowls are heavy, fragile, cannot be soaked and tend to be expensive and time consuming to get replaced.
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