Well, the proof is in the performance, but visually, they are using the proven SD style casing, providing individually adjustable channels, apparently giving individual channel info on the meters, and including a nice color bar meters for the overall input.
If the preamps are on par with the competition and if the timecode works well for $1,000, Zoom will have positioned itself quite nicely between the $2,000 R-88 and the $629 DR680mkii (functionally 6 channel/ no timecode) and who knows what other recorders.