I live in Finland, so I'm not sure where it sits by comparison in the US market these days.
But I've had mine for about a week, and all told I am 100% glad I got it. There is simply nothing else in this price range that gives you as much phone. The huge 720p screen is a dream, and it runs bright and snappy. The storage is limited, but it'll take up to a 64GB card, and those are cheap these days. The camera isn't gonna win any medals like the Pureviews and 1020s and so forth, but it's a lot better than I expected, and the Nokia software + a copy of OneShot will do a surprising amount for cleaning things up.
I am having some problems today with getting a 3G signal, but that may just be local service issues, I'm in a pretty small town. And while WP8 is pretty damn smooth, I have run into a hiccup or two here and there (for some reason I had to download Tiny Death Star on the phone itself, because it just wouldn't not go out over air from the Windows Store).
On the whole though, there is literally no better phone here you can buy for €300 (unlocked too, like all phones in Finland). It was either this, or some middling, buggy Samsung heap. I think I made the right call.