I have bitten the bullet and forced 8.1, realised that with not using a Nokia (Huawei W1) it was going to put me at the end of the 8.1 queue.
It was an absolute doddle to sign up for the DP, install and to date there's only 1 bug that I can see.
MicroSD card not recognised so I have to connect phone to mains charger, remove battery then SD card and re-insert and 'Bingo' the phone sees it.
Guess this will be a firmware fix by Huawei in 2015 just as they cease support for the phone!
Other than this glitch all running smooth, no battery issues, mind you that is this phones strong point as I already got 2 days out of it anyway.
Bit miffed that all the hubs have gone and its app dependent like Android but I can live with that. No stalling, freezing and spluttering like Android.
Just waiting for Cortana to grace my device now!