having personally used both these skis for a season, there's no comparison. the foils have way more pop in the pipe, hold up much better on rails, and rip through pow. the main difference between the skis is that the pe's have sidewall edges whereas the foils' are capped. that having been said, don't let anyone tell you one is better than the other, performance wise, because there's probably about 5 people in the world that can tell the difference between sidewall and cap when out on the hill. sidewall skis tend to get major topsheet chipping around the sides, so if you're going sidewall, expect your skis to look like they've been beaten to shit after a few uses. if you can get a ski that uses a rubbery sidewall (i can't remember what it's called), like in 4frnts, as opposed to traditional ABS plastic, it might help prevent that chipping and edge damage. the main reason people go for sidewall skis is because they have this extra layer of material in the edge, it improves its torsional stability which results in better edge hold when carving (which is why most world cup race skis are sidewall, with the exception of atomic.. which proves that there's such a minor difference anyways). if you notice, there seems to be a trend that most cheaper skis are capped and the most upper-class skis are sidewall, but again, it'll be such a minor difference that it shouldn't even matter. we're not pro racers here anyways, just kids out to have a good time.
all i can do is say that, from experience, the foil is a real smooth ski, and all this crap about 'omg foam core, whaaaa whaaaaaaaa' is BS. maybe in the past salomon had some problems with their 1080s, but foam is the future my friend. it's easy to manufacture, and relatively inexpensive. salomon seems to always be one step ahead than everyone else in that they're trying out new things. whether they work perfectly is a different story, but i respect the fact that they take their products in a different direction, and try to build off of that step, especially with their new SPK boot coming out for next season. who know, maybe it'll be the best boot out there, maybe it'll be terrible, but salomon always seems to be on to something.
so yeah, back to the skis.. another thing i've noticed is that the pe's are terrible on rails. they just don't want to lock on the rail and slide smooth. even after filing my edges down to nothing and keeping the bases freshly waxed, they were extremely inconsistent.
go for the foils. you wont be disappointed.
