As well as getting a photo of 1590 I also went for a ride on it between Darlington and Bishop Auckland.

I have the following to say:

The seats looked slightly different to the other MAX buses I have been on with the most noticeable thing being the headrests being a darker blue than on other MAX buses and the shape of the e-leather looked different to say the MAX Omnicity's I thought. Found the seats comfortable.

Going down the A68 past Burtree Gate I thought that it wasn't very fast, it wasn't slow but it didn't feel like we were thrashing down here though. It felt rather smooth going down this section of the route which was surprising as the road surface is horrendous. Can't really comment on how it did on hills as the only real bit of this journey where it went uphill we got stuck behind a lorry.

Was slightly surprised to find that it has charging points like Sapphire buses do. Not 100% if it actually has screens for next stop announcements as it should be below the stopping light but was difficult to tell as I was sat towards the back and all I could see was black. I tried the WiFI and got connected no problem at all which was good.

So I quite liked this one this afternoon although not 100% if they will handle this route perfectly, will have to ride them more and more of the route before making a decision on exactly what I think of them but I quite enjoyed my journey on 1590 this afternoon.