If you're an android user, Windows Phone 8.1 will be what you're looking for. It has a lot of wow.
1. There are albums but you can't really move things around on the device, you have to do it with the PC for some odd reason. And in 8.1, they unfortunately changed it so you need to have the app. Before in 8.0, it was just if you signed into your facebook or twitter account, you could just share it right away. Now in 8.1, it functions like in Windows 8 where to throws it off to the app to share. OneDrive and DropBox are the same. But basically, if you are in the photos hub and go to an image, you can share it right from there to Facetube, Instacrap, twitter, whatever app can allow photo shares. (Windows Phone did this before ios by the way.)
2. There is no camera button on the lock screen as all Windows Phones right now have dedicated camera buttons where you press and hold that button from the lock screen, camera opens up. VERY nifty and much nicer than android or ios if you're a shutterbug. Performance wise, Nokia Pro Camera is fairly quick, but the default camera app is quicker obviously. There is a quick burst mode as well as the Blink app from Microsoft. Unless you're using the Lumia 1020, imaging is pretty quick and comes out real nice. I prefer the Nokia Pro app as it uses Nokia's algorithms to capture JUST right. The 1020 takes a bit to image but that's because it's saving a 38ish MP image.
3. No third party keyboards necessary. The WordFlow keyboard is quite impressive and currently holds the record for speed typing on a touch screen (beat out the Samsung SGIII). In 8.1, they included a Swype like keyboard. It's weird to me, but works great if it's a world record holder!
4. You can put whatever wallpaper, lock screen app to show the weather (LOTS of lock screen apps and apps that use the lock screen to display information), whatever notifications you want to see from the system, and in 8.1; they expanded out the lock screen so you can have a really unique and custom lock screen. For example, different patterns and designs that move when you slide off your lock screen, or different text layouts. Lots of stuff!
5. Live tiles don't battery hog. The background process can hog battery but that's very unlikely to happen. There is a battery saver feature that disables the background processes to save the battery obviously.
6. In 8.0 GDR3 and 8.1, there is an X button to close apps. In 8.1, you can swipe down the app. Very cool!
7. In Windows Phone 8.1, there is a new Action Center. Basically a notification center (I'm against notification centers as it's a way to get around fundamental UI design flaws, Start Screen IS your notification center) that allows four different toggle switches for the radio or screen orientation lock.
8. Read 7.
9. It would be best to get your handset "developer" unlocked. You can do this free and easy through the Windows Phone AppStudio so you can get the latest and greatest Windows Phone updates regardless of carrier. We'll see this time around how well updates are released on att, but overall, Nokia and Microsoft have been rather great with getting updates out in a timely fashion. att however can go piddle off in that respect because they suck donkey nipples. I have my Lumia 920 on a developer ROM and developer unlocked so I get updates whenever they come from Microsoft. The Nokia firmware updates will be later, those are intended best for camera and glance screen. Also, in 8.1, you can choose to auto update apps versus manually updating them.
10. Yes. If you have OneDrive setup on your PC, documents from your PC to Phone work hand in hand. You can also physically copy over documents as well and save them locally if you wish. Keep in mind, spreadsheets with lots of special links and macros won't fly on Windows Phone, nor advanced animations on PowerPoint. Office on Phone is fairly simple.
11. The only way to transfer files in Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 is through USB. You can use the companion app, I don't. I stick with File Explorer. You can drag and drop, copy or paste, things into the different folders. They're titled accordingly like Music, Documents, Pictures and the such. I prefer the File Explorer for music as most of my music library is all lossless .wma files. The companion app doesn't down convert the bitrate to save space. File Explorer and the Desktop version of the companion app does. Before in Windows Phone 7, you could actually syncing through your local wireless network. Such a shame they got rid of that...
12. Battery life is quite stellar on Windows Phone. My Lumia 920 lasts quite a while even from music playing and interweb surfing. It depends on what features you enable. If you enable double tap to wake up, where you double tap the screen to wake up the device, it does suck battery life at least on mine. There is a Battery Saver feature on Windows Phone 8, Battery Sense on 8.1 that shows you detailed information about what apps suck your battery the most.
If I were you, I'd get a Nokia Lumia with Windows Phone 8.1 right off the bat. There are to be like nine different handsets from Nokia here soon so there will be lots of wow to look at!
