- ES6 is the 6th edition of ECMAScript, which is fully compatible with ES5 strict mode. It introduces many new features such as let, const, arrow functions, classes, modules and more. - Key new features include let/const block scoping, destructuring, default parameters, rest parameters, spread syntax, template literals, arrow functions, shorthand object literals, iterators/for of loops, and modules. - These new features help improve JavaScript code quality, brevity and simplicity compared to ES5. For example, arrow functions provide a cleaner syntax than regular functions, and let/const avoid issues with var scope.