Which version of Horizon Walker?

[Cicciograna]

Hello friends, my GF is currently playing a Fighter/Ranger in a campaign in which planes - and particularly planar rifts - are in the spotlight. She's currently Fighter 6 / Ranger 2 and next level she's planning to get the 3rd level of Ranger (UA revised version), which means Conclave selection.
I'm looking for your opinion on the two variants of Horizon Walker, one of which published on the PHB, and the other one coming from UA.

My GF doesn't yet have a clear idea of what the final chassis of her character will be, although she's leaning on Ftr13/Rgr7, or something like this (the campaign is not terribly hard core, so perfect optimisation is not required, we might not even make it up to level 20).

Looking at the features granted by both variants of the HW, which at this point are essentially those granted at 3rd level, the UA variant seems to look slightly better: she'd get the same 3rd level spell, and at 5th both Misty step and Alter self are pretty strong choices (and possibly the latter is better from the point of view of versatility).

Detect portal from the PHB version seems to be better than Portal lore, given the longer distance, but the ability to "peek" on the other side can be really interesting.

And finally, the Planar warrior feature from the UA version seems insanely more powerful: no resistances for ALL the attacks in the turn and +1d6 to the next definitely beats Force damage +1d8 on a single attack.

If we want to consider also the 7th level feature - even though we might not get there - the PHB version looks stronger, as it's stated that the spell slot is not spent to cast Etherealness.

All of this would seem to lean towards the UA version of the Horizon Walker. Is there anything else that I should consider? Just FYI, for her 6 levels of Fighter she picked the Scout archetype; we play in a 7-members party which features a Rog8, Wiz8, Pal5/Brd3, Clr6/Drd2, Mnk8 and Src6/Wlk2 (is "Wlk" the correct abbreviation for Warlock, lol?). Magic abounds, and we have a lot of bases covered.

Thank you for your input.

[Man_Over_Game]

The UA version has better numbers, but the standard version has more utility. I'd recommend the standard version, if only because the Ranger already does a good job of staying relevant with damage due to their ability to cast rider spells with their ranged attacks.

In fact, doing interesting stuff is the reason people have a hard time playing the Ranger, not because it doesn't do enough damage.

[Cicciograna]

The UA version has better numbers, but the standard version has more utility. I'd recommend the standard version, if only because the Ranger already does a good job of staying relevant with damage due to their ability to cast rider spells with their ranged attacks.

In fact, doing interesting stuff is the reason people have a hard time playing the Ranger, not because it doesn't do enough damage.

Could you be more specific? In my OP I compared the perks from the PHB version to the UA version, and considering a leveling up to 7th, it would seem that the UA variant is superior also in terms of utility, as Alter self could be more versatile than Misty step.
Detect portal and Planar lore do almost the same thing, with the only differences in the range (DP trumps PL) and utility (PL gives a glimpse of what's on the other side, trumping DP).
And finally the UA version of Planar warrior is just flat out better in terms of numbers, although being able to deal Force damage could be an interesting variant.

So how exactly would the PHB variant have more "utility"? Note, I am not being sarcastic, I really want to understand your point.

[Man_Over_Game]

Could you be more specific? In my OP I compared the perks from the PHB version to the UA version, and considering a leveling up to 7th, it would seem that the UA variant is superior also in terms of utility, as Alter self could be more versatile than Misty step.
Detect portal and Planar lore do almost the same thing, with the only differences in the range (DP trumps PL) and utility (PL gives a glimpse of what's on the other side, trumping DP).
And finally the UA version of Planar warrior is just flat out better in terms of numbers, although being able to deal Force damage could be an interesting variant.

So how exactly would the PHB variant have more "utility"? Note, I am not being sarcastic, I really want to understand your point.

Alter Self is actually quite good, but it's also a Concentration Spell, which is a bit harder to use for a class that is often focused around physical combat. A teleportation effect that you can use as a Bonus Action is pretty versatile as both a combat and a utility tool, though.

I find that with the rarity of portals and portal magic, the added range is more useful than the ability to peak through portals. Rather, if you could spot twice as many portals, or if you could see through portals, being able to spot twice as many is more useful if you're only ever going to find 4 in your campaign.

Lastly, Etherealness can be very useful, but that would have much less value on your decision due to the level restraints.