In reply to Baz P:
Have used one for a couple of days.
The no carabiner attachment feels weird to start with but you rapidly get used to it, including racking it on your harness. The swinging plate clicks into place reassuringly and you have to push down a button that’s flush with the plate to release it. It seems it would be very hard to release accidentally. Still, you want this to be impossible even in the strangest circumstance. After two days use I was becoming more confident of it but still slightly suspicious.
The no carabiner attachment doesn’t work with a beefy (>3/4”) belay loop as you might find on some Metolius harnesses. The edges of the attachment plates feel like they might cause wear to fabric belay loops. This might just be my imagination. It feels like it might work best with a Petzl ring or similar, perhaps betraying its roots as a device for rope access workers.
The panic feature is a pain but can be easily switched off. I have similar views about the GriGri+ and you may consider the feature a benefit.
The close to the harness attachment means you can feed out a few more inches of slack at a time. Using a ~9.5mm rope, the feed was a little smoother than with any of the GriGris. These features would make it a strong contender if I was in the market for a new belay device.
I won’t be selling my GriGri 3 but I’d certainly consider a Pinch if I needed to replace it.