Android 4.4 KitKat doesn’t show a breaking interface compared to Jelly Bean, however, it is full of goodies and upgrades behind the hood. In this new version Google has employed what they have called “Project Svelte” to optimise memory usage and they assure it can work in devices with just 512 Mb of RAM.
Approximately a week ago my Nexus 4 received the chocolate upgrade from Google and I set out to discover to what extend this was true. The truth is my first impressions have been really positive and you can really notice faster processes and the overall feeling is really snappy. But there is something hidden that is really jaw dropping, something that could take Android to a whole new level.
If we go into the developer menu (having previously activated it) we are presented with the following option.
ART, which stands for Android RunTime is a drastic change from the system employed up to now as a virtual machine, named Dalvik. The virtual machine is the layer in between our device and our code to ensure everything runs properly with independence of the device we are using (something vital in the Android ecosystem). The main drawback to having a virtual machine is that they produce a lot of overhead that lags processes. With ART Google is going to make Apps compile as soon as they are installed to reduce drastically execution times and lower processing usage. In this way Android could become really code efficient and boost the performance maintaining the diverse ecosystem.
Do you think this will take Android to a new level?
Let me know in the comments!
Pablo Clemente Pérez 