I have only once in my life used tampons with applicators before testing Tampax Compact, and not sure whether I will again. I struggled to get the applicator to work, it was as if the pull out part was stuck and I had to go so far as to use my teeth to get it open. Using my teeth on a tampon is not my kind of fun..
Furthermore, the tampon did not "blow up" as much as my normal tampons does, it went in as a long and thin tampon and came out as such. I felt that I had to change it more often to prevent it from bleeding through.

On the positive side though, it is way better than the old cardboard like applicators, and once I got the hang of it, it was easy to use, just not efficient enough for me.