Great review. I recently test rode this one (thanks Mountain High)  I agree with you Mike apart from a couple of issues. 

1. It behaves oddly when braking. Now it could be the bike wasn't set up properly for my weight and maybe frame sizing is critical.  But I found it very difficult to hang my arse out of the back and more worryingly in the loose it was decidedly jittery. Unnerving when trying to lose speed quickly.

2. Whilst very neutral in its handling its tracking was not great nor was it that chuck-able on my favorite single track.  Having said that it was pretty easy to point and shoot in the rough stuff so the head angles must be pretty slack.

The noise does get to you a bit but by the end of a ride I'd stopped noticing. What is fantastic though which you didn't mention is just how good it is on the climbs. Amazing.

I agree one of the best bikes of the moment. Still some small compromises to be ironed out in future releases.

Mike the bike felt "skittery" on braking but it could have been the set up I am a tad shorter than the average and was on a medium frame but it wasn't diving under braking.  A couple of sweaty moments scrubbing off speed which left me somewhat underwhelmed with the bike (Coz you need to chase your mates hard). 

No the tyres weren't soft  just not up to the tracking of my old Canondale Jeckyl lefty or my current Nicolai Helius with Fox.  Minor criticism as its a big bike when compared to the Jeckyl but not much bigger than the Nicolai CC (though it is a couple of lbs lighter).

I was/am looking for a long legged bikes that I can hammer up and down dale against the cross country boys.  The Whyte so nearly fits the bill.  The Whyte just doesn't have the handling on single track everything else its there.

Not ridden the Marin 120.

My girlfriend got one last year and loves it - her ridding has come on leaps, she is as fast as she was on a Scalpel but can climb and decend much better, I got the 09 earlier this year and agree it is a bit noisy but it climbs up anything and so fast on the downs - has to be ridden hard though, harder you ride it better it is and the more confidence you get.

Takes a while to set up when new and is fairly critical on sag settings, spend some time getting this right and you will be rewarded, get it wrong and it will feel like a normal bike

Overal this bike is awesome for all day rides Marathons and trail centre use - if you want 1 bike to do it all this is it,  finish everny ride with a grin as long as the rest of your ridding buddies are fast and can keep up. now down to 1 MTB bike used too ride long travel for the lakes, Dales and Peaks and short travel for enduro's now this bike does it all and better,