Couple things that would make the Apex more competive is smoother audio like the AT Pro and Manual Ground balance option.
Reaper coil is on the heavy side so don't plan on swinging it all day. My arm was tired after a couple hours. Not sure if depth is that much different than the other coils so next time I hit the beach with a buddy of mine we can compare on targets with his Apex and the smaller coil. He does incredibly well with the Ripper even in high iron areas.
What does make the Reaper feel heavy is it makes the machine nose heavy. I typically use the Seahunter with 10x14 and that machine is well over 5 lbs but I have it very well balanced so I can swing it quite a long time.