I’ve tried it myself and have been using it for about a week now, and overall its a big improvement on the first beta. Heres a quick video from the Skype staff on the new features:
So there you have it from the staff. The most useful features I have found is the new compact view which makes it much better for anyone who is used to the older versions of Skype, because it makes Skype much easier to use when you are doing a lot at one time on the computer.
The new alerts system is much better. In beta 1 I had issues that I’d open up Skype and notice I’d missed a message from someone a day back which is a newsense. Now the new notification system will leave plenty of ways to tell me I’ve got a new message.
Overall, much better, and hopefully the next release from Skype will be the final version which I look forward to.
Grab a copy at http://www.skype.com/intl/en/download/skype/windows/beta/ and try it for yourself, but beware there are still a few bugs and a few call drops/program freezes, so if you want to be on the safe side stick with Skype 3.8.