I personally find them more annoying than just BGA. But conventional wisdom is they are easier since technically you can solder them with a soldering iron and

I personally find them more annoying than just BGA. But conventional wisdom is they are easier since technically you can solder them with a soldering iron and eventually you'll get lucky and remove the last solder bridge without creating a new one. The trick with BGA parts is to use solder paste and a stencil. Once you try it you will never go back. By the way make sure you read the xilinx documents extremely carefully. Its easy to forget to wire PUDC_B and prevent the thing from ever being programmed. There are lots of little gotchas.