Last Sunday at the Rockaway Beach Kite festival in Rockaway Oregon, I got a chance to finally put a Reflex through some tests. I had setup my SUL on 85' of 50# lines (low wind) and after flying a bit, a friend that owned the Reflex, said give it a try. So we swapped it out and put it on my lines and handles. It flew very well!! I really would have liked to setup my Zen on a duplicate setup and done a head to head comparison, but I only have a single set of those lines. Side note - since it wasn't mine, I didn't try flying it without the springs or doing a "dead launch".
I was warned that it is not as nimble as a 1.5, and after flying it, have to agree. But with a little time with it, I'm sure you can coax a little quicker turn from it, I did! It was every bit as fun as my Zen, (with hybrid frame and magic sticks) in those lower winds. I also did the "glide". For those new to this - it's taking the kite directly overhead, pulling the top lines, and having the kite glide back down wind! Very much like some of the power kite series. But --- the springs also prevent you from doing a "catch"! With the springs on, the sail is shaped in such a way, as to take the catch completely out of of the equation. So that can be a plus or minus depending on what you want out of the kite. Other wise it does everything any other Rev will do - slides, inverts, side slide, etc, and does it pretty well.
Rumor is Rev is phasing out the Zen and IMHO the Reflex would seem to be a very adequate replacement. The only negative would be that is it using a special frame designed for it, and all the 1.5 frames we have ,will not interchange.
Still like to see how it flies without those springs ........!