How to get the Android L performance boost on your phone now (swap Dalvik with ART tutorial)

Android L introduces the new Material Design to the world, but the update to L is not just about the visual appeal - it’s also about improved performance. There are many optimizations that Google made under the hood, but the one with the hugest impact in the future is the change to a brand new runtime environment - ART.

Skipping the technicalities, let’s just say that the current runtime environment - Dalvik - only supports 32-bit apps, while the new one is fully 64-bit aware. While we are yet to witness the first Android phones with a 64-bit chip, good news is that you can use this new environment even on your existing device to get some of the performance enhancements coming with Android L.

The tutorial below will work with Android 4.4 KitKat (and newer) devices - earlier ones simply did not have that option. Luckily, this includes not just the Google Nexus series, but also popular phones like the Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One (M8), the LG G3, and so on.

How to do it? First, go into Settings, scroll to the bottom, and tap on "About phone." There, you'd see the "Build number" field - tap on it seven consecutive times, and this will enable 'Developer options'. The second step is to now go back to the Settings menu and find the newly-appeared 'Developer options' menu where you should look for 'Select runtime'.