I've had my Trijicon for a few days now, haven't had the chance to shoot it yet, but here's a few thoughts. The red reticle is easy to pick up while standing in bright sunlight and looking into sunlit areas. It's NOT as bright as an Aimpoint (nor Razor, probably, but I have no experience with that scope). On setting 11, it's quite easy to pick out the red reticle at 1x-8x. Performance MAY have been better had they decided to go to a dual focal plane system like USO, but that would have added considerable cost, most likely. I will try to take some pictures, time and weather dependent.
The glass is as good if not better than I've experienced (not saying much...others' opinions count better here). I've used Vortex PST, Leupold Mk4 and VX-R Patrol, Bushell LRS, and also a Steiner P4Xi.
Regarding true 1x, this scope, and really no other 1-X I've seen, is truly 1x at the bottom end. Holding up a ruler to the objective, and guestimating, I'd say it's about 1.2-1.3x at 1x. It's closer to 1x than my Steiner P4Xi 1-4. It's not enough to be any kind of an issue with both eyes open in my opinion. To my eyes, I'm willing to pay that ever so slight price for the 8x on top, as well as a reticle that doesn't look like a slant (as my Aimpoint does).
Weight, it is a bit heavy, and I've got it in a Geissele mount, which isn't the sveltest of mounts. However, once I got used to it a bit, the heavy feeling went mostly away. It balances well with my relatively lightweight carbine that it's mounted on. I may end up switching this to a 16" gun and running the Steiner on my light 14.5", but I'm in no hurry to do so.
I'd highly recommend extended scope mounts, such as the Geissele Hyper Extended and the Larue SPR-E, as the eye relief on this scope feels quite generous.