I finally got my hands on an NX8 and here are my thoughts:
+'s
- Fantastic size and weight - The NX8 weighs 17.5 oz with battery, but is so compact and centralized that it seems lighter.
- Great mechanics - Zoom ring (eye-piece doesn't rotate) is super-smooth with just the right amount of resistance, .2 mil turret clicks are close together but well defined.
- Bright "red dot" - The brightness seems on par, if not brighter, than my Trijicon MRO.
- Versatile reticle - Segmented circle dot for fast shooting, vertical sub-tensions for distance holds or dial elevation and use horizontal sub-tensions for wind holds. For shooting groups, dial down one mil and use the cross-hairs instead of the big center dot.
- No direct competition - The NX8 is in a class of its own, you have to cherry pick the best of other class scopes to compare against. (Razor 1-6x SFP for optical clarity and price, K16i SFP for optical clarity and weight, ATACR 1-8x FFP for optical clarity and 8x mag.)
-'s
- Not "red dot" fast - At 1x, I'm reminded that I'm looking through a scope. Eye piece is just 40mm OD with 7.9mm exit pupil (vs 9.6mm of K16i or 11.26mm(!) of ATACR 1-8x).
- Crappy flip covers - Included rubber covers are only good for shipping/storage.
I think it's unfair to market this as a 3gun scope since it isn't as fast as the SFP 1-6x scopes that seem to dominate the sport. If it has any advantage at 8x over the 6x scopes, it would only be at longer distances but the faster scopes would gain time on unconventional shooting positions and all other targets.
The NX8 is a jack-of-all-trades scope that trades a bit of up-close speed for longer distance accuracy, lightweight and compact size. It does everything fairly well in a reasonably priced package. I think it's a great DMR-type scope and would definitely be worthy as the one scope for an general-purpose carbine or SBR. The most frequently cited competitors to the NX8 just have different design compromises but none of them are clearly better than the rest. Ok, maybe $$$ATACR$$$.