I'm getting one, been anticipating it for a long time, and chances are it'll be my elf's new best friend. The thing that appeals to me most about this pet is that it's like the lawnmower tractor of mounts: able to get the job done (In this case, running over mobs, activating switches, and with my elf, shoot and flee.) without ever having to leave my seat. I plan on using mine as a dungeon crawler mount. Its low summon time of 83 minutes probably isn't the best as a point A to point B mount, especially when I have other mounts to fill that role.
As for how it is compared to dragons, in terms of base stats, it only beats the Thunder Dragon in HP and beats the Fire Dragon in HP, Stamina, and STR. In skills, although lacking Windmill and the Dragon-only abilities, what skills is does have it can rank up to r5, which aside from the dragon breaths and along with the near-identical, lesser-known Siberian Tiger are as far as I know the only pet that has skills that surpass the usual r6 cap for pets. Another advantage it has over the dragons is that its combat skills rank faster. By level 30, the Snow Tiger's would be at r8/r7 whereas the Dragons' would be at a median of r9. By the time the Thunder Dragon would have all its combat skills at r6 (Level 45), the Snow Tiger would have reached r5 in about half of its combat skills.
Quote from Blizaga;236872:
I want details on it's running speed. @.@
According to the description in the video posted above, it's slightly slower than the Black Cotton Ostrich.
According to the JP Wiki's Pet Page, their relative running speed are about the same, but in absolute running speed, BCO is faster by 6 points.