Things may have changed at Grohe in the past year as far as design, but here is what we found. The various parts- handshower and bar are interchangeable. Therefore we went with the added adjustablilty of the Relexa Plus bar, with the Movario hand held. (which is also adjustable both anglewise and spray). However, we really don't use the various sprays. As far as metal vrs. non-metal hose- The metal on the Grohe is only on the outside, for decoration and to protect the plastic hose within. Our hose must have been faulty as the metal detached from the coupler, revealing the plastic underneath, which expanded under use when not protected by the metal, and burst . No problem getting a replacement from Grohe!

We have the relaxa and I wish I had done what pamies did. I love the bar, but find the shower head is not powerful enough.

I have this vague memory of the saleslady telling me that the relaxa would be powerful enough, that the other head (movario?) was way too powerful and would not be necessary. I remember thinking as I looked at this woman with extremely short, thinning hair that she and I would have completely different idea of what enough pressure is but she had given me great advice on everything else so I went with it and am now unhappy and limp haired. So what I'm saying is that if you need a powerful spray get a different head than the relaxa.

We have all grohe hand shower with bar in all 3 bathrooms.
In the guest bath we went with the Relexa top 4 shower bar set and for the kids and master, we used Movario 5 shower bar set. Since I had to lived in my home theater for 3 weeks, I had to use the guest bath during that time.

We choose the Relexa based on price and with the 24" bar it fits well for the shower is over a tub. It works well but he 4 spray patterns is more like 3. The wide spray is almost the same as the pulsing becuase the pulsing is so week. The jet spray is OK but not like any message jet. It works well as a basic shower. If you want to use it like rain shower, I would not recomend it.

The Movario is much better (cost more too). With the longer bar, it can accomendiate both of us and our kids.
The kids can put the head on the lower fixed mount and we could put it on the ajustable mount for our needs. We also like the look better. Note the cover to the mount is plastic not metal. The rotating shower head can be adjusted and when mounted low can spray directly to you lower back (like one of those wall jets but only 1 unless you have more shower heads). We have only use it this way once or twice. The spray pattern are also better, you can select jet or Massage depend on how much force you want. The rain mode is just normal with more spray lines in the middle but our kids loved it and coverage is good. Although the pressure does reduce a little bit (very little), it is not exactly like one of those big head rain shower.
One more thing, the Relexa does have a quick release of the shower head that I find could be useful if it needs to be cleaned out. The Movario does not.