These photos show the main plus, which is the villas and their individual pools. At the time of this trip, Banyan Tree and Amanpuri occupied the top rung of Phuket hotels. Amanpuri is head and shoulders above Banyan Tree in most respects, but the individual pools are a nice differentiating factor for the Banyan Tree. The villas are broadly comparable, with both in need of a bit of updating but pretty similar in style and size. One downside of the pool is to maintain privacy you're walled off so there's no view at all, whereas the Amanpuri had ocean views. (Of course there'd be no views even if there were no wall, because the Laguna Complex is just a big flat piece of land). As for location, it depends what you want to do. The Banyan Tree is near the airport, and the idea behind the Laguna is that you'll never leave the complex, so in some ways this is more convenient. Also, it's got a golf course on the property, although there's a better one (at least according to Somchai), nearby which I think is called Blue Canyon. It's a really long drive to anywhere else on the island though, so if you're spending any time at the other beaches, Amanpuri wins again.