Trading blows in some benchmarks is a bit exaggerated. If you try the model, `xhigh` is basically feels like the `max` mode (i.e. massive thinker and extremely presistent), and the amount of world knowledge and intent understanding is nowhere close to an Opus class model even from 6mo ago.
It's still very useful, and it'll probably displace a good bit of API spend; but it's not really "trading blows with SOTA from just a half year ago". A bit overblown on the Anthropic/OpenAI has missed the window I reckon.
Also, on the open weight frontier side, Kimi K3 is pretty expensive, and Deepseek V4 Pro/Flash is getting a little less juicy with price increases.
It's still very useful, and it'll probably displace a good bit of API spend; but it's not really "trading blows with SOTA from just a half year ago". A bit overblown on the Anthropic/OpenAI has missed the window I reckon.
Also, on the open weight frontier side, Kimi K3 is pretty expensive, and Deepseek V4 Pro/Flash is getting a little less juicy with price increases.