I completely disagree with keenart. I had Easel and now I have Infinite. Easel is extremely limited. After a few days you'll feel unsatisfied (at least I did). There's almost nothing you can customize. You can load objects and atmospheres as they are but you can't change most of the things there. For example, the material editor is extremely limited. Your pictures would look the same as everybody else's, in terms of textures. It's really, really frustrating. And there's no ecosystems, which I think are the biggest asset of Vue. To build a landscape without ecosystems is very limited and frustrating.

I have infinite and I have absolutely no complaints about it. Everything works fine, just as announced (sure, a crash now and then but nothing that frequent saves won't solve).
I definitely do NOT recommend Easel and I vividly recommend Infinite.

I agree with thefixer, the PLE is a very good choice for you to be able to make an informed decision.