I bought as a frame only as the complete builds obviously cant compare with the online retailers….and i hadnt built a bike up myself in ages so looked forward to speccing it to my wishes.
I bought it for the versatility, as above it can run 140mm travel, is very light and can make a good fist of being an easy to pedal, all day trail bike….but put 160mm forks on (as Giant sell it in the SX guise), the head angle goes out to 66 degrees and you have a great bike for smashing through things downhill.
The DW/Maestro link suspension is very plush and hard to bottom out, any concerns over how it handles rough stuff should be put aside when you realise the Giant Factory team were using them in the Enduro World Series until the new Reign came out this year.
Our American cousins are fond of swapping the rear shock (200 x 51) for one with a longer stroke: 200 x 57, giving more rear travel, about 155mm i believe and i have a shock with this longer stroke waiting to go on mine.
I love it and happily recommend it to anybody who asks and if you can get a good end of season deal then crack on….that said i’m also a fan of the direct sales models and Bird, YT, Canyon, Commencal, Rose etc all offer better build kits and components if you’re buying the whole bike….choice is great but can also be a bugger with so much of it around at the moment!
I’d say if you’re buying frame only and want to enjoy putting together a custom build for just you then buy a Trance frame….if you want a complete bike to get out on the trails with straight away then go down the direct sales route with your budget, only caveat would be to note delivery times before hitting the ‘buy’ button as some of them take months to get a bike to you and it that case its often easier to just walk into a Giant dealership and walk out again 30mins later with your new bike ready to hit the trails.