I spent some time during the flight in the premium economy seats and was definitely impressed.
Some airlines' premium-economy products are basically the same as coach, just with slightly larger seats and slightly better food.
These seats, though, were much different from a standard economy seat. One Qantas employee described them as "more of a level below the full business class, rather than a small improvement on coach" — and after actually sitting in it for a while, I think that's a fair assessment.