Laravel 7 has released, bringing new and exciting features. Custom casting with Eloquent allows for decoupling data between the database state and application state on read and write. This feature enables storing data one way in the database and interacting with it another way in the application. Blade components offer a server-side alternative to front-end frameworks like React or Vue, allowing for reusable code to solve repeated problems. The new HTTP client wrapper simplifies making common HTTP requests predictably and memorably, while the test runner provides improved visuals and halts on the first failure by default. These features aim to simplify tasks and improve developer productivity.