I absolutely love the pre-production look, however I feel the exhaust, subframe, and headlight are going to completely change - which is really most of the look of the bike. Oh - did the swingarm move to the left side on the newer R's?...it was on the right in previous years for the R bikes (mid 2000s).
As far as the power plant goes, I really enjoyed the motor in the R1200S I had for a few months. I can only think that watercooling will make the engine even more efficient.
As a side note: The S1000R is sexy as hell!