'ART' experiment in Android KitKat improves battery life and speeds up apps
Efforts have been made to speed up the Dalvik runtime that underscores most Android apps, but sometimes the best fix is a replacement. Google's working on it, albeit experimentally. Baked into Android 4.4 is ART, a new runtime option that aims to redesign how Android interprets application code. The specifics are pretty granular if you're not a developer, but it's hard to argue with results: early tests show that ART could cut execution time in half for many applications. This means apps will launch and run faster, react quicker and demand less of your device's processor - potentially improving battery life. The trade-off? Installing applications might take a little longer and they will probably take up a bit more storage space. Sounds like a worthy exchange to us.
