Local type inference[1] means you can write:

  var foo = new Map<String, String>();

The static initialisation methods on collections[2] let you write

  var foo = List.of(1, 2, 3);

It's still clunkier than many newer languages but it is improving.

1. https://developer.oracle.com/java/jdk-10-local-variable-type...

2. https://docs.oracle.com/javase/9/docs/api/java/util/List.htm...

As another poster mentioned, the new type inference is great. So is lambda support. Another is Lombok.... Yeah it's not official but we use it literally everywhere and it helps a ton with data classes especially.

Nullaway and a bunch of other linters will also save you from accidentally falling in one of the dusty corners.

RxJava and Java Streams are also very nice.

Anonymous classes are nice too I guess (although they're fairly limited).

Overall the java experience has improved massively in the last 5 years, but you need to know where to look. Highly recommend the two popular "awesome java" repos on GitHub for an overview

No my bad, it doesn't compile, you have to add a default.