ESRAM is gone and many other features are coming to light thanks to an anonymous tip sent to Digital Foundry about Microsoft's "Project Scorpio". Weirdly enough, Microsoft will still be requiring developers to optimize for ESRAM on future PC and Xbox One titles so don't expect Microsoft to phase out Xbox One in this new generation!
The rest of the stuff covered in the 9-minute video is pretty tech heavy and I would be lying to you if I said I understood completely what I wrote up on ESRAM. I'm just serving as a conduit for interested parties wanting to know more about what's under the hood for Project Scorpio. If you're a layman like me the main takeaway is this: "Project Scorpio looks to have the same components graphically as the PS4 Pro...but Microsoft is working to make the hardware perform at much higher speeds and efficiency." That should be a good summary to draw in your tech friend who can pull more from the video below.