Giant Guy wrote:
I'm actually considering dropping my order for the Jim lee Omnibus and grabbing this instead along with volume 9. I have all the originals but my main concern is getting them all in one place. Especially since Days of Future Present is included.

(Who am I kidding I have such a great deal ont he pre-orders for the Omniboo it makes no sense to get this.) Very cool collection to be sure.
i'll sure stick with the essentials until vol. 11, which will conclude chris claremont's first run on uncanny x-men. i'm not that interested in the subsequent stories, which i remember as more or less dreadful until grant morrison's run in the 2000s.

as for your doubt, usually i like the essentials even more than tps or hcs in color cause so many classic marvel artists were true black and white masters, and so i like to enjoy their pages that way. i think about people like jack kirby, john buscema, john romita, gene colan... on the mutant side, i especially loved (re-)reading in b/w the stories drawn by dave cockrum and paul smith.
unfortunately, though, after the silvestri-green era i don't remember any x-men artist who was that good with b/w, made exception only for arthur adams, who didn't draw that many pages anyway. so, i think it's not a bad idea at all to switch to the omnibuses instead of getting the next x-men essentials

Ciao a tutti,
FABIO