The new version arrives six months after the 4.6 release and includes performance and stability improvements as well as many new features.
According to KDE, both the Plasma Desktop and the Plasma Netbook Workspaces are now much more tailored to work with touchscreen devices and feature an update of the Oxygen icons a various visual updates that deliver a much more polished look and feel. The Plasma Workspaces window manager now supports Open GL ES 2.0 to work with mobile devices. The Activity Manager has also seen updates and is now much more emphasized within KDE.
Among the new application features are the groupware Kontact that has been ported to Akonadi and includes KMail 2. The file manager Dolphin received a cleaned-up default interface and a revised file searching interface. The virtual globe app marble now offers voice navigation support as well as a map creation wizard. DigiKam 2.0 is available after more than one year of development and adds face detection and recognition.
Other changes include improved multimedia features as well as enhancements to semantic components of KDE Frameworks.