Is Windows phone with the news 8.1 update now at a level playing field with Android and IOS?

I think in core OS terms yes. Obviously app store is a different story.

If you look for exactly same apps like in Android you may not find them there, there are often viable alternatives.

I see no issues with the app store unless you're an ultimate techie. You've got all the most used apps, including the top 50 most used apps.

WP 8.1 is going to be great when properly released though, will be getting a 930 to replace my 925 on June 9th

Have to agree with this, 8.1 has achieved in slaying some of those myths that used to exist about the platform (lack of true multitasking etc etc). The only issue I think is current devices on WP8 (i.e. before the upgrade) run quite well on battery life, I have seen this update have a slight adverse effect on my Lumia 1020...though I suspect that will be further ironed out when Nokia releases Cyan update at the end of this month.

The preview update released last month improves the battery life quite dramatically, but there are still some issues.

It still is behind Android. Very poor multi tasking, poor keyboard, apps that get released and then never updated and of course many many apps are missing. I can see no compelling reason,other than the camera on the 1020 to go the WP route. And I am a (disgruntled) WP user.

I've been looking at the Lumia 930, looks like a nice piece of kit.

What is a multitasking good for on a mobile phone other than draining the battery? There's not many tasks that really need to run in the background. And those few things that are needed are covered already via background agents and push notifications. Just that something exists on desktop computers does not make it essential for mobile computing.

I had a brief look at the Nokia 635 Vs the Huawei Ascend P6 (EE Kestrel) the other week and was pleasantly surprised by the look and feel of the Nokia. It feels much less cluttered than the Android handset and I think it would be less challenging to learn and use for someone moving from an older feature phone. Windows phone seems to have it's own small following with some I know on their third generation Windows mobile device. For the cost the Nokia 635 stacks up well and I could be tempted to choose it just to maintain experience with a range of mobile operating systems.

I sort of have to agree with you there to a point, I don't think Windows Phone is at the point where it needs full multitasking, the approach it has does work I have to say.

If anything its similar to that if iOS, given how it freezes the state of an app.

I think we can safely say Android multitasking is umatched however it does come at a price, generally however it isn't really utilised all that well on a smartphone. Beyond switch between maybe SMS and facebook I do wonder whether multitasking is really needed given it isn't a full desktop/tablet based system (smartphones I mean).

Any heavy background processing will cost you battery life. If you don't do that, and you have only one foreground app, you have inherently parallel tasks handled (playing audio, uploading, downloading files, etc.), anything asynchronous with push notifications, you don't really need to keep the apps currently not on screen running, you can suspend them and conserve even whatever little power they would consume. If you can store/restore app state efficiently you won't see much of a delay when switching between apps.

making excuses, I have multiple apps running all the time and so does my mrs, and she is definitely not a power user by any stretch.

And though the common apps are there, once you are beyond e-mail, facebook and angry birds you will start to struggle.

What are those apps doing when not in the foreground? Are you re-encoding videos, trying to crack encryption?

Sat-nav, music playing, email and messaging are probably the most common apps that need to be able to run in the background. And my Windows phone does a splendid job with those.

If I used my phone for music, I'd be using 3 apps at once quite regularly.

It really must depend. Power users are likely to have 5 or 6 important apps running.
If you don't need multitasking why spend premium?

Things do sometimes seem in complete reverse.

Best thing is to try it in the shop and see if you like it. I do not like the windows phone OS, too rigid for my liking and i do not like the tiles, but you may.
I do know of a few people that got Windows phones, most are saying about going back to Android when they next update.

Lack of apps is a problem if you are into apps, i only have a small amount on my phone.

But do you need true preemptive multitasking everywhere? With Android you get it with any phone, cheap or expensive, only parameters like RAM and processor are different. But is it really needed for anything else than feeling smug about it? You can have an app that keeps doing something in the background, but there are more efficient ways to achieve the same. People don't like battery draining apps and kill them. Those are the ones that take advantage of available multitasking and keep doing something intensive even when not on screen.

I use Windows and Android, there is not much difference between them for me and I've easily found any apps I needed for the Windows phone.

If I had to choose just one I'd go for Windows.

No, Android does not give you full preemptive multi tasking. It is very selective ....

Apps exist on Windows for all my needs though often they're a bit stark and not as pretty as on iOS.

I do think Windows Phone has always had the best keyboards. I just don't like the weight and thickness of my 920 otherwise I still prefer Windows Phone to anything else (that's partly because I'm used to it).

My iPhone is great but I do frequently find having to force quit apps on iPhone and iPad and restart them. I don't have those issues on Windows Phone.

Then it looks very similar to WP and iOS. Given statements here I assumed/expected something else.

In my experience (owning a Nexus 7, Lumia 1020 and iPhone 4S - soon to be upgraded to a 5S, fingers crossed), multi tasking is pretty much identical in the real world on all 3 platforms. And none of them handle it anywhere near as well as Symbian did .... which is damnably irritating.

Overall usage I'm surprised that I find WP way more preferable, even in 8.0 guise. Not totally sure that 8.1 is a massive improvement - games need to stay in the games hub, not be moved into the general apps list ....

I like Windows Phone a lot, but I have to disagree with the above - there are many 'consumer' apps which are only available on iOS and Android. Bit of a catch 22, as many companies don't see the WP market as being large enough to feel they have to cater for it. And as others have said, some WP apps don't quite match up to their iOS/Android counterparts.

Plenty of major apps still missing including many UK banks, Sky TV. Apps that are there are usually not as good (examples include Whatsapp and BBC iPlayer).

These are major apps.