Just got home with my SD9VE. I thought I would do some initial comparisons with my SD9.

The SD9 came in a plastic clamshell box with 2 magazines. The SD9VE also came with 2 magazines but was shipped in a blue S&W cardboard box.

Here are a few comparison pics.

SD9 (black slide) above the SD9VE (silver slide)



The slide is melonited on the original SD9 and left bright stainless on the SD9VE. This is really the only noticeable difference until you look close.

The SD9 has been my CCW gun for a while now, the finish is holding up extremely well.
I saw a post that indicated that the loaded chamber indicator might be different, but it is not, not on mine anyway.


You can see that the sights are different. The SD9 rear sight has a set screw that the SD9VE sight does not.


The front sights are similar, but the SD9 has a front night sight, versus just a white dot on the SD9VE.


The SD9VE also has a different, and slightly better, trigger than the SD9. The weight is about the same but the length of pull on the VE is shorter and slightly smoother. I expect it to get even smoother when it's had a bunch of rounds through it. The triggers aren't very different, and I probably wouldn't notice if I didn't have them right here to compare back to back.