I installed this update on Monday and so far I am very happy with it. It adds pretty much all the features that I was missing on Windows Phone so far, like separate volume controls, VPN, notifications, and native podcasts. And it does all of that while still running smoothly on my 1+ year old £100 (contract-free) phone.
The one big thing that is still missing for me is Google Hangouts support, but this is obviously not something that Microsoft could easily add. And it is definitely not enough to sway me to iOS/Android.
Every update on my iPad just seems to slow it down.
I learned this the hard way with my iPhone 3G. By the time I upgraded it to iOS 4, the phone literally wouldn't work anymore. It would ring, I would touch the answer button repeatedly and nothing would happen. By the time the slow-as-molasses phone responded to the answer button, it would go to voicemail.
It happened to a lesser degree with my iPhone 4 and I didn't have my 4s long enough to experience it. Basically I think Apple just assumes people are going to upgrade their Apple phone every 18 months, which is a stretch considering major US carriers have clamped down on subsidized 18 month upgrades.
I kinda had the same with my old samsung omnia 7 running wp7, then 7.5 then 7.8, no lags.
I currently sport the 520 (the cheapest of them all, and obviously lowest in terms of specs), and upgraded to 8.1 two days ago, incredible that every update doesn't slow things down, everything is snappy
The one big thing that is still missing for me is Google Hangouts support, but this is obviously not something that Microsoft could easily add. And it is definitely not enough to sway me to iOS/Android.