Had the opportunity to try out the A350 economy seat/aircraft on the weekend. My observations below.

Pros:
1. Good cabin pressurization (similar to the A380).

2. Seat cushioning is good/acceptable. No numbing problems being seated for 13+ hours.

3. Good external window size. Good call by Airbus to leave out the electronic window shades used in the 787.

4. New small touches such as sensor bathroom taps and sensor bin lid opening (when they work, see below). Seat belt warnings are now shown using LCD screens (good), however the quality of the picture coupled with the massive back light bleed makes this feature look gimmicky. Good in seat screens and UI.

Cons:
1. Leg/feat room somehow felt different. I'm referring to stretching out legs completely underneath the seat in front being limited. The under seat space feels limited. It feels like you hit the seat bar (separating the seat space in front) sooner than other SIA aircraft. This brings me to point two..

2. The depth of the seat feels less than previous SIA aircraft, which subsequently may have reduced the underseat space described above.

3. The seat generally feels narrower and shallower compared to the very good 777-2/300/A380 seats.

4. Cabin noise and external noise intrusion is very poor, and I rate it poorly with other poor aircraft such as the 777-2/3.

5. Cabin feels smaller. In fact the aircraft feels quiet compact. This could be a good thing too.

6. The aircraft I was on was 10 months old. General condition of the aircraft is as expected, new. EXCEPT for the bathrooms. They looked poorly maintained, with what seemed about 5 years of wear. One bathroom tap was broken and someone had substituted using a 1L bottle of Italian aqua, naturale mind you.

7. The new LCD screens being used in for the seat belt alerts bleed so much light at night it kills the blue mood lighting, and you probably won't need your reading light.


Overall, coupled with the 'enhanced' business seats, the hype with this aircraft (fit out) is smoke and mirrors. Sure it does the job well, but I feel its implementation could have been so much better (like the 787). Feels rushed and cheap.

Long live the A380 which seems like was the last real game changer in aviation.