Earlier quoted context omitted.
"It's superior to my old iPhones in almost every way." Unless you count battery life, GPU, probably CPU, form factor, build quality, the wildly superior app, media and accessory ecosystems. But other than that what have the Cupertianians done for us lately?
As an iPhone user, I can chime in with my opinion. It looks like the iPhone and 920 battery life are both pretty abysmal http://blogs.which.co.uk/technology/phones-3/best-phone-batt... CPU and GPU for the end user isn't important. What is important is the perf of the UI, which WP7/8 have always been buttery smooth when compared to iOS and Android devices with better hardware. I'd also say Nokia is very closely behind…
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6914/samsung-galaxy-s-4-review...
No Lumia on there but I think that matches up with the general btty life rating for iphones. Some nokias in this listing:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Smartphone11/349
"CPU and GPU for the end user isn't important."
It certainly can be for certain apps.
"WP7/8 have always been buttery smooth when compared to iOS and Android devices with better hardware."
I'm not sure why you've lumped iOS with famously jittery Android (at least historically, 4.2 seems to have solved lag) since iOS is usually cited as the standard for smooth interface as in this initial WP 7 review from Josh Topolsky: "probably the most accurate and nuanced touch response this side of iOS4."