A very significant new release on the DCC decoder front is the Lenz LE1835E. The 18 in the product code indicates not that it's at least 18 months since I ordered these, but that the current rating is 1.8 amps. This is exceptionally good news if, like me, you have a good number of high-current, double-motored European locos that will fry regular decoders - most decoder manufacturers neglect this sector of the market, offering nothing inbetween the regular OO/HO chips and their cumbersome larger-scale siblings that won't fit into HO models.
The new Lenz LE1835E is a typical modern decoder, having both high frequency (silent) drive and Back EMF along with a full range of lighting options, which is good news indeed. It also has a SUSI interface onboard, which might be useful in the future for piggy-backing sound chips but is of little value to most people at the moment. On the down side, this new decoder seems to follow the earlier LE1035E in being dumbed-down a little - there seems to be no access to speed tables and no option to switch off Back EMF. I say "seems" because the manual is more multi-lingual than multi-factual and these features may well be hidden, but I doubt it based on the previous decoder. Similarly, the user only has very limited facilities to tune the Back EMF, unlike the much more sophisticated Zimo products.
Another drawback is the fact that the decoder is only available in a long, flat, single-sided version and not the stubbier double-sided type - bad news for anyone wanting to fit it into one of the many European models that have a ready made space provided for that variety. The older 1024/1025 range was much better in this respect, giving the consumer the choice of size and shape - I hope Lenz aren't losing the plot here.
Finally, the performance. Ignoring my first sample which blew up in under 30 seconds, the other 4 have been giving very poor results - in fact the poorest running I've ever seen with a Back EMF chip. In my stock test loco (runs fine with all other decoders!) I've been getting very jerky operation indeed, akin to a Lima pancake mechanism on a trainset controller. Although I need to do some more testing in different locos (and specifically the European models I purchased these for) initial impressions are not good. An inability to fine-tune the Back EMF isn't going to help much, and if these decoders won't work well in the locos I've got that need the extra amps, I'm going to have a serious problem...