I travelled on the Azuma yesterday from Leeds to Kings Cross. I travelled in coach K, First Class. I have travelled on the equivalent coach on a GWR IET and must say the LNER version looks much brighter. My wife thought it was a different type of train to the GWR one, the difference was that great for her.
In the great scheme of things, the train is perfectly fine and I doubt that any changes will be made to it for quite some time, but after I have had a few more journeys on them I will give LNER some feedback which may be of use along with others for future developments.
Yes, like many other I found the seats hard, although you tend to get used to them. Whether it was a combination of the lively ride of the coach at times and the firmness of the seat, I did feel I was moving in my seat more that I would have thought. I found at the end of the journey you can raise the head pad!
I like the reservations system. I am visually impaired, but could easily tell from the platform which seats were free and which were not. I was able to find my seat OK, but having the seat number under the luggage rack makes it a bit dark, its a shame the seat numbers don't light up. I often travel this route with my wife and we like to sit on the single row of seats facing each other, but the Azum's have very few of this type of seat configuration which is a shame, but I assume it is because they can fit more airline style first class seats in.
I was disappointed there are no curtains, only blinds. This means if one person needs to reduce the light coming in through the window, the other person sharing the window has to too. Not only that, but owing to the curve of the window, the blind does not go completely down leaving 4 - 6 inches of window. this could be annoying on a sunny day when sunlight can't be shield from a laptop screen or similar. The blind also does not seem that thick or dark, so on a sunny day how effective will they be. The curtains on and HST or Mark 4 are not perfect, but seem more flexible. Also the lack of the a curtain track at the bottom of the window means there is no easy play to put the menu out of the way or stick your phone it it - real first world problems!
The table appeared bigger, but at the window end it curves upward towards the window, so you can't put cups etc right at that end, reducing the space, I can' think why they did day.
The aisle seems wider, when the trolley was going down, people could pass it at a push, but there again the trolleys seemed smaller!
The step into / out of the coach seemed bigger which should help getting on and off. I liked the sliding doors between the coach connections which are extra to the sliding doors into the seating area. As long as they work it should reduce noise. In Coach K you could hear the electric motors etc, not a real issue.
The toilet was fine, nice clear buttons with labels. It is so annoying these days at times to go into a public toilet which has automatic water / soap dispensers and driers and does not put clear labels on them, as you can end up wafting your hands around hoping something will happen! The sink seems narrow which meant the floor seemed to get wet easily. The door lock was clear (I did not try the disabled toilet), in may ways it seemed over engineered. The large luggage store area opposite the toilet was confusing people. I and others on auto pilot just opened the door and was shocked to find no toilet in there!
So on the whole the trains are fine, with some annoying bits. Will the age well and will the price of tickets attract us to keep travelling with them? Probably yes as I have no real other practical choice.
Hopefully attached are some picture of some of the features mentioned above.