Here are my observations after an hour of use.

1) The UI is pretty similar to anything Chromium based. When compared to Brave there are minor changes but overall it still retains everything that Brave already implements. It's a nice theme though. Not too into the blue and white for some reason. The addition of a reader mode and booklist is nice. Though, I've already added that to Brave on my setup.

2) After updating the browser, the speed degraded dramatically. I'm on an Apple M1 and it is the only browser to behave in that way.

3) The "shield" isn't blocking trackers and ads. It's behaving erratically. It's blocking fingerprints but that's it.

4) Information is being sent to Google. Google safe browsing is enabled by default. This isn't "private" in any way. This does not exist on Brave (to my knowledge).

5) The "shield" has also removed the option for standard and aggressive blocking. Something people would probably have an issue with.

I wouldn't recommend this browser. It seems half baked and there is nothing yet to differentiate it from Brave in any way other than being crappy.