Yeah, and if anything the UPO5000 series has an even closer resemblance to the Rigol DS4000 series
. Slightly higher wfm/s, slightly more memory, USB decoding, double cursor knobs, 4 *different* colors for the 4 channels, all nice incremental improvements, but no hacks or used ebay models to bring prices down. Now that even the Agilent 3000 series has hacks that's probably a tough sell to the hobbyist-one-level-up-from-1054Z market segment depending on how aggressively they price it (my guess: not very -- high end ADCs and FPGAs haven't plummeted in the interim).
It's hard to evaluate the software without actually playing with it, of course. The DS4000 was severely buggy at first and still has some stinkers 4 years later (jumpy trigger when scrolling, crusty serial decodes, slow+short+inflexible FFT) so it's not something to shrug off. I don't know whether to read "we lifted the UI wholesale form Rigol" thing as a strategy that gave Uni-T more time to focus on quality or whether to read it as a sign that they care even less about their FW. I guess I'll have to wait for a review.
All this competition between B-brands is exciting stuff. Rigol's lineup is getting pretty heavily besieged these days, can't wait to see if we get some turnover in the next year or so, especially with the rumors about them trying their hand at ASIC design.