Like some others, I bought the D&D 4th ed red box as well, and my main disappointment with that was the lack of character creation instructions. You build a character as you go through the intro adventure but a LOT is left unexplained or completely omitted, and who wants to go through an adventure every time they build a character!? Pathfinder's intro books are much clearer and they even give you a cheat sheet inside the book covers for how to do it. While the D&D art in later volumes is definitely more professional and painterly looking than the comic book-style Pathfinder uses, that's not the case in the two beginner sets. There's no contest, because the D&D ones look like art students made them while Pathfinder's are the ones that look professionally done. I know a lot of experienced people were turned off by D&D's 4th edition rules and gravitated to Pathfinder (which is often called D&D v3.75) but I haven't gotten deep enough into either to say I like one over the other. They're both similar and I think most beginners won't notice differences or care when they do. Pathfinder's box however includes more and is higher quality than the D&D one and it has made me want to go further with their system.