Sklavos talks a lot about the basic Windows Phone functions, but what drew me in were his thoughts on the migration from Windows Phone 7.5 to Windows Phone 8:
The problem is that it's not quite as stable as WP7 was, and that's due chiefly to app compatibility. While I haven't had any major problems with the hardware or even most of the software I've run on it, Zynga's bloated code nightmare Words with Friends has caused my handset to either hang or reset multiple times. I would expect users running older WP7 and 7.5-based applications to have a mostly trouble free experience (and certainly worlds better than Android), but there are still hiccups here and there.
As for actually making the jump from 7.5 to 8, since the UI is almost exactly the same, it's incredibly easy to switch. Everything is where you left it, it's just now there's more of it. The quarter-sized live tiles are a welcome addition, the faster hardware is a major improvement, and probably best of all, Microsoft is starting to really throw their weight behind the OS and its app ecosystem. Third party apps exist to handle a lot of what you're looking for, and they do it reasonably well, but I'm really looking forward to an official Pandora app.
As always though, there's an issue with Windows Phone to address. And it's the applications. While Sklavos doesn't seem to have hit any obvious gaps or issues (apart from the compatibility bugs in some apps that are being shaken out by developers as we speak),
Microsoft may be wearing the prettiest dress, but they're still late to the party and there's a lot of catch-up to do. I think they can do it, because this is Microsoft we're talking about, but those of us willing to either migrate over to Windows Phone 8 or just jump in as our first serious smartphone investment are unfortunately going to have the unenviable task of providing the chicken that will hopefully start laying app-flavored eggs.
Head over to Anandtech for all of his thoughts on Windows Phone.