The flat sides without much contouring around the mechanical bits inside. It's not beautiful. Can't tell if it is a deliberate attempt at looking brutal or the underdeveloped appearance of the weaponry used by the alien enemy in a low budget science fiction film.
The hand guard bolts on to the upper receiver and the top rail is two piece. An issue for optics.
Some of the mechanism appears to be tacked onto the outside as an afterthought. The bolt catch release comes out of the upper, runs down the side of the lower, and extends through the trigger guard opening to the opposite side.
The Magpul butt stock may be a really good butt stock, but they are surrendering the design of 1/3 of the bulk of the rifle to someone else, an off the shelf item, that is not terribly expensive compared to the asking price for the whole rifle.
They show barrels as much as $1,450.00. $525-650 for what is currently available. Not as many choices. 16 inch, 20 inch, and one pistol length only in 5.56.
The suggested retail at $2,350.00 is a more conventional "This is what we should charge you, look how much lower the actual retail price is.". No mention of what that actual retail price is, yet. They are going to distribute through a big, well known sporting goods wholesaler, so it's going to be below $2,000, and the rifle will be reasonably plentiful in stores. Not special order, and not with a lead time. Also not as a custom order.
But I'll bet it uses the standard AR trigger assembly. It looks like a lot of the effort went into making a lower to accept the standard AR guts.
Seems closer to an MCX than an XCR.
Maybe it will prove itself AK reliable. If it's plentifully and available for immediate purchase, the step between the perpetually back ordered MCX, and the 8 month special order XCR, might find a lot of buyers.
Maybe they manage AK reliability with AR accuracy. That would sell a lot of rifles.
Now for the teething.
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