The big news is the all-new Hone group. It's pitched as an "enduro" group, taking some of the heavy-duty ideas from the Saint freeride/DH components and mixing them with more XCish stuff. If you're into proper big stuff then you're meant to use Saint, if you want light weight then XT should be your choice. Hone is the inbetweeny all-rounder and should therefore be a popular choice - lots of people are inbetweeny all-rounders too... It'll also be cheaper than either Saint or XT, being pitched somewhere vaguely around LX pricing.

Cranks are Hollowtech II, as seen on XTR, XT and Saint - they're not as massive as the Saint ones but meatier than the XT ones. The rear mech shares Saint's axle-end mounting for better damage resistance. It's a great idea although it slows wheel removal (not really a big deal for the intended application) and the rear mech floats around if you take the wheel out to put the bike in the car...

Brakes are hydraulic discs, naturally. 203mm rotors are standard with 160mm as an option. They're Center Lock splined items, compatible with existing XT/XTR splines. Saint uses a bigger front spline to clear a 20mm axle, so Hone offers a possible rotor size upgrade path for XT/XTR users. It's interesting that Shimano are offering a 203mm rotor on a regular front hub, given the rarity of forks warrantied for such a combination. We'd still like to see 180mm-ish rotors from Shimano, particularly on a group like Hone pitched at the big-terrain but not necessarily World Cup DH terrain rider.

The brake calipers are superficially similar to XT and Saint although the Hone units are two-piece calipers for reduced cost. A variety of front mechs are available - BB mount, top swing, bottom swing - and Dual Control shifter/brake levers are standard issue.

It looks like good stuff, and we like where Shimano are positioning Hone. It won't be available until November, though, so we'll have to see how it stacks up in real life. More pics below...