instead of changing CSS properties 'manually' over a period of time to achieve animation it sets the CSS3 transition properties making the browser do the work i

instead of changing CSS properties 'manually' over a period of time to achieve animation it sets the CSS3 transition properties making the browser do the work instead of javascript which in most cases translates into using the GPU leading into smoother, faster and less power hungry animation. it also seems to add a few things that .animate cannot do, such as skew and 3d rotation. keep in mind that .animate works in all browsers while this needs a modern browser that supports CSS3.