Here's the URL to Thom Hogan's Sept. 25, 2016 review of the NEW 70-300mm f/4.5~6.3 AF-P VR DX zoom lens. According to Hogan, its performance betters that of the over a decade-old 70-300 AF-S VR lens!
Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3 AF-P VR DX | DSLRBodies | Thom Hogan
Some excerpts, form one of the world's foremost Nikon reviewers and writers:
"The new AF-P lenses at the low end of the consumer DX lineup use a very different approach to focus motors. The AF-P lenses have stepper motors in them that are unlike the previous AF-S lens motors...
...The good news is that these new stepper motors are fast and quiet. The bad news is that only a few cameras are compatible with them ...Focus mode is determined by the camera body; there are no switches on the lens to set focus mode. However, unlike other low-end DX autofocus lenses, the AF-P lenses allow user manual override of the focus at any time (just rotate the focus ring while continuing to half press the shutter release)...
... focus ring: it’s fly-by-wire...
...I really didn’t care that the lens was fly-by-wire for manual focus...
... VR on/off ability is buried in the Custom settings [#D10])...
...The big surprise is that the new AF-P focus motor is
very snappy and nearly silent...
And now the biggest bombshell of the review. so big, I am going to quote Hogan, in bold type:
"
In good light and with a cross focus sensor, this lens performs right up there with many of the big, expensive lenses, for sure, even on the least expensive Nikon DSLR body."
"Optically, the lens seems to shine, as well..." "Flare control seemed particularly good, both with edge of frame light source and just-outside-frame light sources. That’s a good thing as I was testing the lens without the optional lens hood,"
And another bombshell, " if you’ve got a recent DX DSLR and need a telephoto lens, the 70-300mm AF-P just became a better choice to me than the 55-300mm, or even the older full frame 70-300mm f/4-5.6. Yes, I wrote that. The 10-year old 70-300mm AF-S lens is nearly double the weight and struggles a bit with the 24mp DX sensors. I don’t see that same problem with the new 70-300mm AF-P. "
So...there's MORE to read in the review. But this is an interesting development. Hogan mentions that teven NEW Nikon bodies that ARE compatible with AF-P lenses, might need their firmware updated. And as he noted, "The D7100 and D7200 can’t turn off VR, which is a shame."