In the final scene of Star Trek Beyond, the Enterprise crew gathers for a Kodak moment, looking out through the largest bay window in the universe as the Enterprise is being re-built within Starbase Yorktown. The big reveal of the NCC-1701-A is a pretty short follow-up scene and my eyes were not fast enough to spot any significant design changes. Were there any?
Yes... Many changes. The connection point from the saucer section to the support pylon that connects to the secondary hull is very next generation Enterprise D on the very top.. Wider and thicker as you can see it is meant to separate. Also the support pylon is thicker and curved slighly concave in the middle. The saucer has a more angled edge and the area under the impulse drive is wider and more flat again like the D. The nacelle pylons are straight not curved making the nacelles farther apart more inline with the original A. Lastly the nacelles are less round and look a bit like a hybrid of the classic refit and the kelvin timeline nacelles of the former 1701. Check this video out, a little grainy but you can slow down and replay:
