Okay, I´ve used mine in a variety of situations and lighting conditions now, and can give my inexpert opinion. I stacked them up against my personal fave "best optics I´ve ever owned" bins, the Nikon EII 8x30.
I compared my original (2009) 8.5x EL´s to the EII´s last year, many times, in many conditions. The optical superiority of the EII´s was always pretty obvious, even if marginal or unnoticeable to most (sane) people. Although the (2009) EL´s had a relaxed and easy view, when I switched from EII´s to EL´s, I always felt a slight but noticeable "softening" of the image.
And now the good news. With the New EL´s, I can´t detect any meaningful softening from the EII´s to the EL´s. I can´t say the EL´s are better, but neither can I say they´re worse. They´re a little different, the colour rendition seems more natural, whereas the EII´s give a warm glow, especially highlighting reds and browns, for examply on conifer bark or withered heather on a nearby hillside.
The EL "flat field" thing is impressive. Very, very sharp all the way across, no need to re-focus at the edges. The EII´s obviously have and extra 1.2 degrees of field, so you´re seeing as much "sharp" FOV with them. But the narrower field of the new EL´s seems wider because of the clarity, and for the first time ever, when I switch to the EII´s, my eyes can detect the softness at the edges when I´m viewing through the centre. (This is meaningless for birding, however - I don´t use the periphery of the field unless I detect motion in it, and then pan to centre).
I looked for "rolling ball", but could only get a very, very small amount of it, and I had to try, and also to pan very quickly and steadily across a wide field to get it at all. My Opticron DBA Oasis compacts give far more "rolling ball", and even in those it doesn´t bother me because it only happens with fast panning. But I finally "get" rolling ball, because in comparison my EII´s show none at all.
The CA in the new EL´s is very slight also, less than in the old ones, IMHO. I got a little lateral fringing when viewing the horizon of a hill against a bright winter sky, at very the top of the field (a little pink/purple), and the bottom (a little green/blue). I couldn´t detect any CA against the same sky from backlit winter tree branches. And the EII´s showed as much, or a little more.
In normal daylight, the EII´s were a little brighter, or so they seemed, but it was marginal and this may have been the result of the slightly lesser magnification and warmer image. At dusk (and I mean really dusk, half an hour after sundown), the new EL´s were brighter...but not by much.
I tried to produce glare by (foolishly) swinging the view close to a low, bright winter sun. There was a little bit of halo-ing at the bottom of the field in both bins, with a slight advantage going to the EII´s. But this was only so close to the sun that apart from "serious nerdy optics-research", only a lunatic would attempt it.
I tried an amateurish resolution comparison, which was pointless because of the magnification difference between the EL´s and the EII´s. I set up a magazine page involving a colour photo and black text on a music stand at 20m, and tried to read it and study the photo with each bino. Obviously the new EL´s won out, by a considerable margin, because of that extra half degree of mag. No slur on the EII´s there.
Close focus on my pair of new EL´s is 130cm. (My EII´s are about 215cm).
Close focus to infinity takes just under two turns. But for general birding, from say 10m to 1km, it´s very fast, about a quarter turn. I don´t understand this, but I´m happy with it.
They feel like the "old" EL 8x32 in my hand. I couldn´t really get a full grip round the barrel of the 2009 EL 8.5x, but I can with the new version. The narrowing of the barrel makes a big difference for me. The rubber armouring all round the barrel is very comfortable too, although I thought it wouldn´t make much difference.
The depth of field is very satisfactory, but I don´t really know how to measure it. The Nikon EII´s retain a huge edge (no nikon pun intended) in terms of their beautiful "3D" effect.
Downsides of the new EL:
I don´t like the rainguard on the oculars, it´s still the hard plastic hinged version. So I switched it for my "default" rainguard, soft rubber from a pair of cheap Bressers.
The focussing wheel is a little "sticky" at close focus, but I assume this will smoothen (is that a real verb?) with wear.
The eyecups don´t have click-stops. The eye-relief is very long, which is great, except my little round-wire "dedicated birding spectacles" don´t need that much, and when the eyecups slide in, as they do with use, I can sometims get little momentary black shadows in the centre-field. I´d prefer if the eyecups had stops so I could set them a little further out from "full-in". Nothing a little blu-tack or duct-tape won´t sort out. Or I´ll simply have to bird with my regular daytime spectacles. Which aren´t half as intellectual-looking as my Ghandhi specs. (One has an image to maintain, don´t you know).
(Another downside is that if I now own the perfect roof (new EL), and the perfect porro (EII), I have no need to browse optics forums and have created a gaping hole in my life that needs filling. Perhaps I´ll go read a book.)
Summary:
If you want ´em, and can afford ´em, or (like me) have enough unused binos stashed away in a cupboard to fund ´em, these new EL´s are really, really superb. If you want world-class optics but can´t afford new EL´s, and don´t need waterproofing, or top-notch open-roof ergonomics, and like 3D, then get a pair of Nikon EII 8x30 and save 1,500 euro. Either way you get top-class optics. But I do think my bino-buying days are over now that I have the new EL´s (no laughing down the back). Caveat: all the above is my opinion/reaction only, and I stress that I'm not expert.
, I find panning with the 8x32 SE is fairly smooth. 
