Haven't had a bunch of time to mess with this tonight, but I really like being able to launch Google Assistant by sliding up from the bottom bezel. Works on either side of the FPS, too.
I like that the app drawer was added back. Don't like that when I enabled it, my home screen settings and layout were not applied. Interesting though, when I switched back to the default home screen my original layout was there, like two independent home screen setups.
It does seem a bit quicker, not that I found it slow before. My only issue with emui4 was the lack of an app drawer, now that it's been included in EMUI5, it's great. I have the Mate 9 that has EMUI5 so it's nice to have the consistency.
Battery life is better on Nougat.
Since I use a Pixel launcher it is difficult to comment a lot about EMUI.
I do like how the EMUI 5.0/Nougat notifications and settings drop down work well with the Pixel launcher - almost stock like feel.