Hi Jude
The needle is certainly thicker. It has to be, however, as Byetta is a liquid but Bydureon is a suspension with tiny time-release "balls" in it. Whereas with Byetta the needle almost drifted through the skin, I have found, through trial and error, that the easiest, and painless, way to inject Bydureon is via a quick, hard jab. *****-footing around seems to cause more pain - but, even then, not a lot. I do have the Bydureon "bumps" but they do go away after a number of weeks.
Hope this helps
Doug