Ummm... whatever you find best suited to your own style of piloting and fighting? Armor and agility matter nothing compared to pilot skill; if you can't fly your ship you're gonna die no matter what. I still like my </= Class 7 ships.

If I had to pick one of the above, I'd take the Eagle; I prefer agility to armor and the fact that the Eagle's turret has more coverage makes it the natural choice for me. Given the option, however, I'd gladly fly a Hammerhead rather than the top-tier... and I'd sooner fly a Stiletto or a Banshee than a Hammerhead. If my skills were still up to it, I'd still be scooting around in a Dagger or a Patriot.

ANY ship can mount weaponry capable of downing any other ship. That's not even an issue. It's how you use your ship and its equipment that really matters.

i like the sabre because it looks better and all around is better even with less stuff. lots of fun flying around in a modded ship with 4 thrusters tho... making an npc with 8 lasers and 4 thrusters

Depends on your playing style, quite honestly.

Aside from my previous post...
Of the three ships that I've flown, I do tend to favor the Outcast Saber.
It's a blend of hull and manuverability. More manuverable than a Titan and more armor than an Eagle. (Or less armor than a Titan and less manuverable than a Eagle)
In a point blank "boxing" match, if the Titan was outfitted with the Standard Corsair Weapons (class 9 Salamancas optimal against molecular shields/refire of 4, Adv. Positron Shield class 10)
vs
A Saber outfitted with Standard Outcast weapons (Class 9 Wyrms optimal against molecular shields/refire of 3, Adv. Graviton Shield class 10) (Outcasts don't have Laser or Photon Weapons, but neither does the Corsairs and the Corsairs don't have Plasma Weapons)
The Titan probably would come out ahead simply because it has more armor (hit points) .

However, if you change the equation of how the ships are loaded out, it might change the outcome in favor of one or the other. (That was sheer genius on the designers of the game)

The Eagle, (A Civilian VHF) ... take your pick. It's equivalently armored to a Hammerhead VHF.
In a standoff "boxing" match..with either of the other ships, it would lose quickly. It's only advantage is it's agility. However, if you load it out with pulse weapons along with nomad weapons, it stands a better chance.

Sheer genius would have been balancing out all the other ships so that players aren't all but forced to accept the five or six different ships at the top end of the spectrum. Unfortunately, even the balancing would be a pain- but that goes for any game that allows variable player loadouts. The same issue crops up in Starsiege, Mechwarrior, Tribes, you name it- certain weapon/armor/shield combos are always going to come out on top given players of equal skill. It's the difference in player skills and specialties that make different combinations viable; comparisons based on the relative stats of two ships in the same weight class are useless for that reason. Nobody is going to argue that the Anubis is inferior to the C9/10 VHFs (even though there are those of us who would rather use it anyway) because it is so obviously inferior in every stat but agility- but those differences are significant for reasons other than differing player preference.

I prefer agility over either armor or firepower; some folks like to have all their guns up front and others like to have a more solid armor defense. If there were a ship that were as agile as the Eagle with the armor of the Titan or Sabre, then there might be grouns for some sort of debate- but those three ships are essentially equal to one another precisely because different players play differently. I'd even argue that certain slightly lower class HFs, LFs, and Frs are also equal to their standing just because they cater to still other play styles while still maintaining the ability to engage in a fair fight given two pilots who both chose their ship according to their skills.

There is something to be said for the powerplant on the titan...it lets you use diamondbacks and buckshot without having too much downtime. In an eagle, if you are using codeweapons and you deplete your power supply, you could practically serve tea in the time it takes to charge back up. The eagle has good agility, though. To each his own I suppose.

Beware pirates bearing gifts!