Stopped by the Victorinox store at the mall today to actually put my hands on this stuff. A couple of surprises:
The original slide lock is back in production. I guess Victorinox has more confidence in it than the ones they issued warnings about. Probably the least intrusive system because it sits flush on the back scale. Unattractive, though. Matte scales on all of them.
The Evogrip and Evolution knives held two oddities: They are small - the size of the compacts, and they don't all have locks (I had thought that was one of their defining characteristics). The locking models have have an "S" - as in "Evogrip S18" vs "Evogrip 18". The locks levers are kind of big, but stiff enough that I don't think you'd accidentally disengage the lock unless you're really not thinking. Nice package. But, you might get a small pen blade or a nail file depending on regional distribution, which is painful, since it is not determined by model number.
The New Ranger knives are flippin' huge. I mean big. Not sure what the intent with these is - my pockets aren't that big. As an outdoors only knife they make some sense - really big saw.
The Soldier family with the backwards liner lock actually seemed the most "Swiss Army". The simple lock, though it sticks out a bit, was aesthetically the most in line with the way a SAK is supposed to look and work. Simple and effective, not fancy.
The Vic website does not show all the knives currently available, which is also a pain. One that they had at the store which is not on the site is the Outrider. I believe it was a slide lock, and had a nice mix of tools for the size.
I think it is important to remember that like the first liner lock knives, the SAK locking knives are slipjoints with an added lock. This is really very different from a back lock or Walker linerlock where the lock IS the open position. So I don't think they should be compared too closely.
