After a long wait, Android 4.4 is finally here but was it worth it? Here's a breakdown of what's great about it and things we wish had been included but were not.

As far as design is concerned, Android seems to have found its visual identity after five years since its inception so there's not much difference between Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and Android 4.4 KitKat. The visual upgrades incrementally enrich the experience but with no major overhaul.

Another slow transition is the blue text in Android 3.0 changed to a predominantly white text. It somehow looks like the revised iOS 7 but it sure feels friendlier, warmer and less nerdy. Google Now's functionality also continues to improve, alerting the user with important emails and many other info based on his web activity.

Google's key objective with Android 4.4 is to make it run on devices with just 513 MB of RAM. On devices with bigger amount of memory, the performance is just sublime. Android can finally compete with Apple's iOS responsiveness with movement and navigation between applications - fast and lag-free. Predictably, there still are times when activities become a bit jerky but these are less common than in Jelly Bean and Ice Cream Sandwich.

With Skype, BlackBerry Messenger and WhatsApp all available on the Google Play Store, its own messaging client Hangouts faces some tough competition. To adopt, Google replaced its default Android messaging app with Hangouts. It still cannot compare with iMessage, though.

Not a big deal has changed in Android 4.4 when it comes to pictures and videos. Android's stick camera app is mediocre at its best and downright maddening at worst. It takes too long to boot, too slow to focus and over-processes images. Android 4.4 doesn't fix this but the good news is that Android 4.4.1 and Android 4.4.2 are being rolled out to speed up the camera app and snap a more balanced capture speed and image quality.

Android 4.4 would have been a lot better had Google already addressed the camera issue. Users who transition from Samsung's TouchWiz UI won't have some of the "smart" features on default but stock Android is more powerful and cleaner albeit a little bare compared to third party skins on the market.