I’ve just recently bought a Marmot Nabu jacket which is Neoshell and it is ace. It is very very breathable and easily better than the Gore Pro Shell jacket it’s replacing and better than a lightweight Rab eVent jacket I have also.
The Rab ones I think fall in to either the very lightweight category, or the ‘proper’ mountain jacket category. The uber lightweight ones will still be reasonably tough and certainly not less than a similar Gore (Activeshell) or light eVent jacket. The bigger ones will be tough as nails but then the weight penalty is there.
Where I think it really comes in to it’s own is the jackets made using the softshell version of NeoShell. It’s as waterproof as the hardshell version but softer (….). I bought the Nabu as when I go out Winter/early spring/late autumn on the hills I can now take 1 jacket rather than the breathable but not waterproof softsheel and the waterproof but not massively breathable hardshell I used to take. Neo is breathable enough to wear all the time, comfortable like a softshell and waterproof like a hardshell.
The Nexus is a fairly standard mountain jacket weight – 600g is not really that heavy when you are actually wearing it, it’s more about fit than weight unless you are doing 2 weeks with a 25litre bag up a cliff….
