Well to each his own. I have battery operated optics almost exclusively, one even has a little solar panel and I just change the batteries out every year. I started adding them to pistols too, after maybe a half hour working on drawing to sight alignment it started feeling like cheating. But keeping a large stash of batteries and rotating them out is prudent. As far as the smart slide it looks like a cool toy is all. I don't care for the bluetooth shit just want an Alien2-style round counter to play around with.