With the release of Paranoid Android 4.0, the PA team removed most of their unique features and went back to the drawing board. The team wanted to make their code modular as well as re-write the features so that they could take advantage of all the new APIs offered in KitKat. Today, the team released a new beta build of their ROM with a major new feature — Peek.

Peek is Paranoid Android’s team take on the Active Display feature as seen on the Moto X. Like on the Moto X, whenever the user receives a new notification and he picks up the phone, the screen on the device will light up with a solid dark background image and display the relevant notification.

Below is a quick video showing Peek in action:

The difference in PA’s implementation is that Peek only lights up the screen of your Android device if it detects any activity within the first 10 seconds of receiving a new notification.

I have already been using Peek on my Nexus 4 for a day and while the feature is really nifty, I fail to see how it is different from hundreds of Active Display type apps already available on the Play Store.

The major problem is the hit on the battery life that using Peek will incur. Since Paranoid Android’s implementation is at the low level, it might be more energy efficient than similar apps on the Play Store, but the hit on battery life is still noticeable in day to day usage. There really is no way to fix this problem until and unless your Android handset comes with an AMOLED display.