It depends. The trick to using new correctly is to put it in a function whose sole purpose is to immediately store new's result in the smart handle. I.E. You'

It depends. The trick to using new correctly is to put it in a function whose sole purpose is to immediately store new's result in the smart handle. I.E. You're writing a function that's analogous to the make_unique function. You might need to do this if you're implementing your own smart handle or writing a factory function for a class with a private constructor (make_unique will not work). Off the top of my head, I can't think of any good reasons to use delete.