I haven't used both, but you are correct spec wise they seem to be the same. The part I am not sure of is if the Germanium lens is the same or not. There really isn't a spec sheet on that. I had heard the RXQ30v was originally created in a different factory. It is going to be smaller, lighter, and of course doesn't have the trail features of internal battery, wifi, streamvision integration, recording, etc. It should be very close especially if you get the newer models without the green tint screen. Maybe people liked the green, but going to the newer style, it should look a lot more like the XQ30.