Sleeveless or sleeved wetsuit?

I'm sure you will get votes for both on this one.  However, my choice is definately the sleeveless, even in cooler water temps.  I have a strong swim background and a decent swim split.  I'm not the fastest out there, but am very comfortable in the water.  Honestly, I have never even tried a sleeved wetsuit.  I could not imagine swimming without full use of my shoulder rotation, I love my sleeveless

For various reasons I ended up with a DeSoto. One advantage I found after the fact... If the water is a bit on the warmer side I just wear the bibs. If it’s cool, I wear the full suite.

Just a thought.   

People sometimes mistakenly equate wetsuit speed with wetsuit comfort and ease of swim stroke.

They aren't related.

Consider how we buy a wetsuit in most cases:

We do a dry land fit and base our decision on which one "feels best" standing upright on dry land without a layer of water between the wetsuit and our skin and likely without getting the suit on optimally.

I did a brilliantly failed research project to divine the fastest wetsuit once and for all that spanned two years. Utter failure.

What I did discover is that, unequivocably, a full suit is faster than a sleeveless suit. In addition to, and perhaps more importantly, the full suit being measureably faster (especially for average to poor swimmers) the full suit equipped swimmer recorded lower heart rates than the sleeveless swimmer.

The odd thing is a full suit is sometimes harder to swim in. That seems counterintuitive. The suit that provides better floatation and better hydrodynamics results in less stroke and higher velocities through the water with less energy. It feels more restrictive but is faster.

A key element to wetsuit performance is donning the suit correctly. In our tests, conducted in 50, 25 meter pools and in open water in Curacao in the Dutch Antilles, indicated that donning the suit correctly, and specifically pulling the arms up adequately (the most common full suit donning error) is the single most important factor in suit performance and swim velocity.

Here is a very old link to a very old article I wrote prior to the beginning of the ill-fated wetsuit test:
http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/features/wetsuit.shtml

I say our test was ill-fated because my intent was to test a number of brands and models of wetsuits and show which one was measureably faster in empiracle tests. Interestingly, and this is why it is a bit of a failure, we found almost no measureable difference in performance from one full suit to the next regardless of price. This being the case, I'd buy the leat expensive full suit that fit you correctly and practice getting the suit on dilligently.

The crux for me was that ease of swimming did not equate to or result in faster swimming. One wetsuit distributor suggested that stiffer suits with a non-absorbent lining soaked in less water over a long swim than a suit with a smoothskin outer and an entirely nylon lining (most of them) and maintained their bouyancy longer when immersed.

Good replies so far. As others have mentioned, full sleeve is faster and shouldn't hinder your range of motion.

But I've got both and prefer the sleeveless for training once the weather warms up and I don't need the sleeves for warmth. It's strictly a convenience thing. To get my full suit on properly takes much more time than the sleeveless. I just want to get to the lake, throw on the sleeveless and go.

So I guess I'd suggest starting with a full and consider eventually getting a sleeveless. I really like having both.