Had a brief 45 minutes or so (although the wife said it was "bloody hours") look at these last Saturday and was very impressed. I had a couple of pairs of my bins with me (Nikon 8x32 HGL and Hawke Frontier ED 8x43) and also compared them with the Leica Trinovid HD 8x42 which I was having thoughts about buying. The build quality and finish of the new ED-X seemed much better than previous Hawke models and optically they were both brighter and sharper than my older 8x43 model, the only area they were worse was in close focus where, although both specs are the same at 2 metres, the older 8x43 definitely focused closer than the newer 8x42 model. Comparing them with the Nikon's and the Leica's I couldn't really see much difference in terms of sharpness in the centre although both Nikon and Leica were sharper in the outer 10 or 15% of the field. The ED-X were slightly brighter than the Nikon's (42 v 32mm) and about the same as the Leica's. The Leica's also had a better close focus with the Nikon's in between the two.
The weather was pretty awful, very grey with spots of rain, so looking for CA was tricky although unless it's really bad it doesn't generally bother me much.
All looking good for my Leica purchase then? Sadly no. The FOV was on the low side, less than the Nikon's and much less than both pairs of Hawke's. Disappointing as one of the main properties I always look for is a good FOV. Strange as well, since the Leica 10x42 don't suffer from this and have a reasonably good FOV (and better close focus!). Overall the Leica's felt best from an ergonomic and tactile point of view, which made the narrow FOV all the more disappointing.
Back to the new ED-X, ergonomically they too felt good, nicely balanced, not too heavy and a quality feel (just not quite as good as the Leica's) definitely better than the 8x43.
Current price for the ED-X £369 and Trinovid's £749. Better? Probably just slightly but certainly not that much difference.
Eventually left without buying anything but planning on going back in a couple of weeks and wouldn't be too surprised if a pair of ED_X accompanies me when I leave the shop (or maybe the 10x42 Leica's).
All the above is, as always, IMHO.
Nick