I finally got the update as part of the preview program last night (I was waiting for a few of the major bugs to be ironed out before moving across) and my impressions are as expected, I dislike it.
Now, this is not to say all changes are bad. The responsiveness for opening some menus and apps has vastly improved, not only when using a controller, but when using voice too. I used to have to really hang around when asking the xbox to snap anything or go somewhere specific. But this unfortunately is the only real improvements I've found from the new experience, the rest as far as I'm concerned are a step backwards and these are my gripes so far
- Due to the tabs and icons on the main screen becoming smaller, they are now harder to read, as they blend in to my background photo which has a blue sky. I've used this photo from the very beginning and I wasn't looking to change it, but because all the icons and lettering are white on the main screen without the option to change the colour of them, I'm forced to use only dark wallpaper for them to stand out. I know I will get used to where they are, but that's not the point.
- I've never used gestures with my Xbox, I mostly just use voice with the kinect, but the layout has not even been optimised for voice, so much so that I can't get the Xbox to navigate down the page. Where I used to say "Xbox pins" this no longer works, the same applies when I go to the OneGuide tab, I can't get it to navigate down the page to see the rest of the content. This is also true of the TV Guide. I used to find it simple being able to navigate between 'Trending' and 'TV listings' easily, but they have made this more difficult with a controller and actually impossible with voice control.
- Achievement Leadberboard. I assume this will be coming back in a later update, but as of now the community tab is a waste, since I'm not really interested in what achievements my friends are unlocking in random games and rarely do any of them share an update. I usually found it more fun to compare how well we were doing for the month and as pointless as it is, I also got a bit of a buzz when I was ahead in the ranks.
- The OneGuide tab itself is a bit of a mess. I used to like going to the 'What's On' tab and having a few YouTube suggestions, for things like Xbox weekly and other gaming related videos such as Twitch or YouTube reviews etc. But now it's flooded with stuff from app channels that I usually go to exclusively if I know I want to watch something, or from other app channels I never use. Other than the 'Trending on Live TV' segment of this tab, it's relatively useless to me.
- Snapping an app with the controller now is more of a pain than it was before. If I double tap the Xbox button, I used to be able to just hit right and have achievements or the last used app, which was simple. But now, the left snap comes in (partially blocking my field of view of whatever it's overlaying) and then I have to tap down 5 times (or pull the right trigger, then tap down once again) to be able to get to the snap option, but then I have to scroll through a list of what I want to snap. This detracts from the element of speed they were going for in terms of getting to everything quickly. I can see I will be snapping everything exclusively using voice in the future, I feel sorry for those who don't have a kinect and would want to get around this.
- The Store I have no real complaints over. It's mostly an improvement over the old one, but it still needs a bit of polish
That's my opinions so far, but to me the NXOE is just as much of a step forward as it is backwards. It does seem to be that Microsoft was touting how this update was a big thing for backwards compatibility, almost as if it was to reduce the sting in the tail for those who don't like the new layout, but it's not like this UI change was mandatory for the backwards compatibility, since we know it worked fine without it via Rare Replay.
Anyway, I was expecting great things when I heard Microsoft's plans for bringing Windows 10 to the Xbox, but so far, from a UI perspective I'm REALLY disappointed. Time can only tell if further updates will bring the improvements I would like to see.