What’s New in JDK 11? Explore the Latest Java Features and Improvements

In August 2017 the JCP Executive Committee announced a six‑month release cadence for Java, starting after the official release of Java 9. Java 10 arrived on schedule in March 2018, and by September 2018 Java 11 was slated for release on the 25th.

On the OpenJDK website, JDK 11 is currently in the Release Candidate (RC) phase, the stage in the software lifecycle where the version is feature‑complete and primarily used for bug fixing.

Since the features present in the RC are effectively the final features, this article summarizes the new capabilities of JDK 11 based on the latest available information.

JDK 11 New Features

The OpenJDK site lists 17 new features for this release; the following are some of the most important:

1. ZGC – Scalable Low‑Latency Garbage Collector

ZGC promises pause times of no more than 10 ms per GC cycle, with throughput degradation of no more than 15 % compared to the default G1 collector.

2. Epsilon – No‑Op Garbage Collector

Epsilon is a “no‑op” collector that performs memory allocation without any reclamation. It is useful for performance testing, memory‑pressure benchmarks, and as a baseline for comparing other GC algorithms.

3. Enhanced var Usage

While Java 10 introduced local‑variable type inference with var, Java 11 extends its use so that var can be declared as a local variable inside lambda expressions.

4. Removal of Java EE and CORBA Modules

Following the plan announced with Java 9, Java 11 finally removes the Java EE and CORBA modules from the JDK.

5. HTTP Client Further Upgrade

Originally standardized in Java 9 and updated via JEP 110 in Java 10, the HTTP Client API receives a major upgrade in Java 11 (JEP 321). It now supports non‑blocking requests and responses through CompletableFuture, simplifies tracing between the client, publisher, and underlying sockets, and improves reuse between HTTP/1 and HTTP/2.

Conclusion

Overall, JDK 11 does not dramatically change the Java development model, but it brings tangible benefits: faster garbage collection, a more convenient HTTP client, and the ability to use var inside lambda expressions.