I wouldn't exactly say 'blows the doors off', but it's a bit better as far as hardware goes. For running on stock Android, no matter what, that's always a plus, unless you're a die-hard touchwizz (I don't know WHY on this one) or Sense (I just don't like sense at all) fanatic.
The updates are nice, though if you're like me those don't matter so much as does the community behind the phone. Many many roms are gonna be out for this one, and it's easy to manage as far as rooting and flashing. Well, hell, almost all Android phones period are easy to root now days.
I'm particularly interested in this just due to the form factor and hardware that's in it. The Galaxy S hardware always made me drool just a bit, but it being from Samsung made me forget about ever wanting one. **** me once, shame on you. Again? Hell, I'll just go slap myself in the face with a red-hot skillet before I let that happen again. The only reason I kind of trust this one is because Samsung has NOTHING to do with the updates. They can't dig their crap-crusted fingers into this one and jack it up. At least, not as far as I know, it being a 'Google' phone, from the ground up.