New features in EF Core 1.1

Modeling

Field mapping

Allows you to configure a backing field for a property. This can be useful for read-only properties, or data that has Get/Set methods rather than a property.

Mapping to Memory-Optimized Tables in SQL Server

You can specify that the table an entity is mapped to is memory-optimized. When using EF Core to create and maintain a database based on your model (either with migrations or Database.EnsureCreated()), a memory-optimized table will be created for these entities.

Change tracking

Additional change tracking APIs from EF6

Such as Reload, GetModifiedProperties, GetDatabaseValues etc.

Query

Explicit Loading

Allows you to trigger population of a navigation property on an entity that was previously loaded from the database.

DbSet.Find

Provides an easy way to fetch an entity based on its primary key value.

Other

Connection resiliency

Automatically retries failed database commands. This is especially useful when connection to SQL Azure, where transient failures are common.

Simplified service replacement

Makes it easier to replace internal services that EF uses.