Earlier today, I came across a video on YouTube where the person argues that instead of comparing the 400i to any of the Connies, it should be more compared to another ship. Here's the vid in case anybody would like to see. TBH, I think he makes a few valid points.
He does make a few good points, but given his historic bias against anything Origin and for anything Drake, worth taking with a grain or two of salt. I usually enjoy Minion's thought process, but this is an area where he falls on his face occasionally. He does here when trying to equivocate the 400i to the Cutlass.
I was hoping that the 400i would be a genuine competitor to the Freelancer DUR. As it turns out, it's not. There are two key areas that mark it as competition to the Aquila and Corsair.
The first is maneuverability. The Freelancers have much better agility across the board, and can legitimately dogfight (painful tho that might be). 400i, Aquila, Connie are considerably less agile.
The second is a dedicated scanning station. The DUR does not have this while the others do.
A third area I'd like to include would be signature.. prior to 3.15 PTU patch, the 'lancers were quiet.. deadly quiet. Now, I dunno wtf is going on as the values shift from patch to patch. So waiting to see on this one.
The DUR still appears to be a legitimately soloable ship. The 400i somewhat less so (better with crew or blades). The Aquila with no top turret has a serious defensive gap that it needs the P-52 to cover. The Corsair is not in game yet, but if it handles like a Connie (probably) it'll need gunners to survive as well.
IMO, the 400i doesn't compete with any of these ships, or even the MSR. It provides a ship with a unique combination of attributes that has long been asked for, wrapped in a weird looking package.