I have a Leatherman E304X, with 154CM steel. The 'X' stands for 154CM; all the others have 420HC. All the odd-numbered models are half-serrated while the even-numbered ones are plain edge.
The E304X has a fold-out carabiner which doubles as a bottle opener, but no bit holder or other tools. It also has the "blade launcher" flipper, which works very well as long as you keep the pivot properly oiled. This being my first flipper-assisted folder, I was quite impressed by the speed with which the blade comes flying out. You need to operate the flipper with sufficient force, otherwise the blade won't come out all the way and the liner lock won't engage. But after only a little practice, the result is very impressive.
Overall, I really like the knife. It looks great; the aluminium frame around the black inserts gives it a high-quality, classy-yet-modern look. There's no blade play and the liner lock seems solid enough. It seems sturdy enough for the tasks for which you'd use a smallish knife like this, although fans of "tactical" or heavy-duty folders will want to look elsewhere.
The carabiner plus bottle opener is a useful addition, yet almost invisible when closed. This really is a knife first and a (limited) multi-tool second, as opposed to most multitools and SAKs where the main design goal is to cram as much stuff as possible into a small package and the knife blade is just one of the available tools.
However, there are some rather big disappointments, too. The biggest one for me is that the thumbstud is right-handed only (I'm a lefty). This makes the knife a lot less useful for me. The flipper is ambidextrous, of course, but there are many situations where you don't want to make people think you're walking around with a "stiletto". With a double-sided thumbstud, this knife may well have become a permanent member of my EDC rotation; now it's just a curiosity in my collection.
Another disappointment is that the blade was very dull when I received it NIB. Now, most of my other knives are Spyderco and Benchmade so I may be spoiled in this regard, but even my other Leatherman multi-tool blades were sharper than this. It took a lot of time on the Shapmaker to get an acceptable edge on it. Other than that however, the machining and finish are excellent.
Finally, it's pretty bulky for such a small (2.8" blade) knife. Not only is the handle thicker than on many comparable knives, but there's a lot of room between handle and blade, in the closed position. I assume this was done to leave room for the gadgetry, but it seems that it could have been made a good bit thinner. The result is a knife which takes up a lot of pocket space, without feeling sturdier than a Delica or Mini Griptilian, for example. Fortunately, despite its bulk, it is very lightweight.
All in all, I think it's a great concept and I would probably buy an E306X and/or a K502X as well, if only Leatherman would stop discriminating against us lefties..
