Opus 5.5 and Sol Split the Team

Hello, and happy Sunday. Three new models dropped this week, and we Vibe Checked each: Opus 5.5 pulled several of our team members back to Claude, GPT-6 Sol is Dan Shipper’s new daily driver, and Grok 4.7 won back one power user (but no one else). Later, Steal these gathers the week’s workflows: Mike Taylor on benchmarks and writing, Jack Cheng and Douglas Brundage on Jev, and Becky Isjwara on video. Some housekeeping: Micah Rich leads a prompting workshop on Friday, October 2, and Thesis: 2027 is down to its last tickets.—Kate Lee

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Vibe Checks

Two models came out on Tuesday and another on Monday. Here’s our verdict on each.

“Vibe Check: Opus 5.5 Is Pulling Our Codex Converts Back to Claude” by Katie Parrott/Vibe Check: Katie and the team found Opus 5.5 matched or beat Fable 5.1 on product and design work at 60 percent less per token—enough to become Kieran Klaassen’s new daily driver and to tempt a few Codex converts back to Claude. There are still two significant tradeoffs: Opus buries the point in prose and will run for hours unless you set a budget.

“Vibe Check: GPT-6 Sol vs. Opus 5.5” by Dan Shipper/Vibe Check: Dan’s verdict: Sol if you want a fast, cheaper daily driver in Codex that leads with the main idea. Opus 5.5 if you’re willing to pay more for ambitious coding and visual work, like the webcam heart rate monitor it built and Sol couldn’t finish.

“Mini-Vibe Check: Grok 4.7” by Laura Entis/Context Window: Mike, Kieran, and Tyler Nishida were already testing Grok 4.7 for a Vibe Check when it was released on Monday, so on Thursday we ran a short version. It won back Tyler, who finds it cheap and steerable enough to be his daily driver again, but no one else: Kieran won’t consider it next to Opus 5.5, and Katie found its writing had no rhythm or feel for the reader.