First off let me say that this is THE best looking folding knife I have ever seen. Absolutely perfect digi camo pattern with a great collection of colors, mix that camo pattern with the black FFG TiNi coated blade and perfectly shaped handle... what a beauty! However this isn't a beauty contest (unless you are collecting). Knives are meant to be pounded on and are expected to hold a certain level of quality craftsmanship, especially at this price point. And this is where the Aegis falls short.I'll start with the Pros- Perfect blade style, shape and edge. As I recently said in my Spyderco Tenacious review here on Amazon, is that I really love the FFG, straight edge, fat blades. Of all the knives I was looking at here on Amazon and elsewhere, the only two that really fit this bill in the sub $75 price range was the Aegis and Tenacious line of knives. To me both are very similar in a lot of ways, and I wish more blade companies would use this style.- Looks. As I mention in the beginning of my review, I think this knife is almost perfect looking. The balance of colors, blade shape and overall design is simply amazing.- Deep SOG pocket clip. I really wish other companies would have this kind of low carry pocket clip, because it is definitely the best clip design out there.- AUS8 steel. Yes I know it isn't the hardest most rust proof steel out there, but you know what, that is ok with me. I am not some kind of knife professional, which basically means I cannot sharpen worth a darn. So why would I want to torcher myself by getting a knife with S30V steel that is next to impossible to sharpen? I wouldn't. I would want a softer steel that is VERY easy to sharpen and manage. It may not hold an edge as long as something like S30V, but if I can bring it back up to razor sharpness very easily, than that works for me. And realistically, unless you are into bushcraft and use the heck out of your knife every day for hardcore cutting tasks, AUS8 will stay razor sharp for a very long time. People get way too caught up in the high end steels and think they need some kind of super steel for their average daily EDC tasks. Heads up people, you don't. Getting high end steel in a expensive knife is mostly so you can brag that you have a uber strong rust proof steel. To me AUS8 is the working mans steel that gets the job done without breaking the bank.- Jimping. I must say the overall jimping on this knife is superb. The top-side blade jimping grips VERY well and the jimping for fingers on the handle is more than sufficient. Note that the satin version of the Aegis has much smoother jimping on the blade than the TiNi coated Aegis blades.- Ergonomics. Wonderful, when you hold the knife it sits very well in your hand, definitely one of the most comfortable folders I have ever held.- Lightweight. Amazingly lightweight knife, you will definitely forget it is in your pocket.Now for the Cons- BLADE PLAY! This is my biggest problem with this knife, the blade play. It is terrible! Right out of the box my blade had side-to-side play, and if it doesn't have play initially, it will develop play only after a few times opening the knife. Yes the pivot can be tightened, but that just makes it harder for the assist opening to firmly open the knife, and since this knife appears to lack any kind of bushings, the tighter you make the pivot the harder and rougher it will be to open. Take note that I did get a replacement Aegis from Amazon, at first there was little blade play (somewhat acceptable) but after a few times opening and closing, it developed play. Not only side to side play, but also up and down play! Awful! For a $70 knife I would expect a ROCK SOLID lockup for at last a few months of daily use with minimal to no pivot tightening. Unacceptable. My $30 Spyderco Tenacious had, and still has, a rock solid lockup with NO play and it is less than half the price.- Rough operation. What I mean by this is that when you open and close the blade it feels very rough, like the knife is actually rubbing up against the Zytel handles instead of some kind of bushing (not talking spring tension rough here). As mentioned I don't even think this knife has bushings, it's just metal on plastic. Once again another reason my Tenacious is better, because it actually has bushings and has buttery smooth opening/closing.- Assisted opening. I just do not like assisted openers, and I really wish SOG would stop incorporating this junk in their knives. Assisted opening is completely unnecessary and is mostly for show. A good smooth manual opening knife will actually open much easier and faster than an assisted blade if you just practice your technique a bit. I also believe that assisted opening knives are prone to blade play for whatever reason. I know somebody who also has a brand new SOG Trident (which has assist) and it has TONS of blade play. So either this is poor SOG quality control, or it's a side effect of assisted openers (every assist I have owned has blade play). Either way I hate it, and I am never buying a assisted knife ever again. Manual openers are FAR more reliable and are significantly smoother. SOG really needs to re-think the assist technology and go back to good/reliable manual openers. Most of their knives are assist, and that is a real shame. If they weren't assist and had smooth and reliable manual opening, I would actually buy some of them.- Poor thumb stud placement. The thumb stud may seem adequate at first, but after several times opening and closing the blade my thumb was becoming a well tenderized piece of steak. If the stud was slightly bigger and moved out a bit it would have been significantly better, but as it is now it will absolutely tear up your thumb. The day after I got this knife my thumb was killing me, very poor design.- Blade centering. The first Aegis I got has terrible blade centering when closed, it was actually rubbing up against the handle liner when it was closed (marked up the blade). The replacement Aegis I got was better with centering, but it only seemed to get worse as I opened and closed it a few times.- Difficult to close with one hand. Granted this is an assisted opener and has a high tension spring, but this knife is almost impossible to close with one hand without worry of chopping off one of your fingers in the process.- Hard to unlock when open. Ok, it is not really hard to use, but if your thumb has been tenderized by the thumb stud, moving that tiny lever down to close the blade is quite painful. Would have been much better if the locking stud was bigger.- Blade locking mechanism. Personally I don't ever see why I would need to lock my blade when it is in the closed position, as the chances of it flipping open in your pocket are extremely slim due to its design. Why a con you ask? Simple, if I was ever in a pinch situation and needed to use my knife tactically, I wouldn't want my knife to lock up accidentally in my pocket, leaving me vulnerable when I need it most as I try to unlock a knife in a heart pumping, adrenaline packed situation. If the lock was higher up on the handle, it may have been acceptable. But where it's at is very inconvenient if you ever need to get it open in a pinch situation. Yes I know I could stick some glue or something in the hole to seal it in the open position, but I shouldn't have to do that with such an expensive knife.So there you have it, the Aegis has plenty of positives but also has plenty of negatives. For me and the $70 price point, this knifes negatives far outweigh the positives. To me a $70 knife should be practically perfect, which in my case it was pretty flawed, especially in regard to blade play which should never exist in a $70 knife. Yes I know $70 may seem like a 'cheap' knife to some people, but I am not going to go out and pay $150 or more for a knife, sorry but no thanks. $70 for me is about my limit for a simple EDC knife that I am going to take out and beat up on a daily basis. If the Aegis was $40 or $50, I could accept the negatives, but for $70? No way.