Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing. I talked to a local retailer who indicated the Symetre was upgraded this year to have all the same features as the Stradic, except for the white surface finish. He's usually been right on things in the past, but I have a tough time proving it.

Looking at their website, the only differential considerations are that the Stradic has:

Rubber handle
Power roller III (instead of II; ?)
S-guard and S-rotor (which don't sound like much)

http://fish.shimano.com/publish/content/...Catalog.pdf.pdf

More questions remain than answers I guess. I have a fleet of Stradics that have been really resilient for me, but maybe I'll take a Symetre out for a stroll on my next purchase,

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