The Slash has great geometry and so does the Bird.
The adaptability of the Bird is very appealing to me (it can run a different linkage for 180mm rear travel and mullet option in future) and I think they’ve got their aluminium frames looking pretty good in a form+function kind-of way.
It’s a well-proportioned alu frame, it comes in raw and it’s sort of “everything you need and nothing you don’t need”.
I’ve ridden the carbon Slash a bit. Awesome bike which is neutral in a different way to older Treks (including the previous Slash). It’s very calm and the chassis feels better damped than most bikes. Easy to ride fast. I reckon they’ve really worked on the ride feel. Dunno if this all translates to the alu version.