In General: As you already know, all races can select racial feats that allow racial traits to develop and expand as the character rises in level. Level adjustments are gone, with all the new races largely equal in power. It is also mentioned that when drow finally appear in some future text, many of their powerful racial abilities (levitation, darkness, etc.) will be relegated to feats to balance them out.
Humans: Now referred to as the most “resilient” race, they receive some kind of feat bonus (“a little extra treat”) and racial feats that involve “dramatic action and dramatic recovery.”
Dragonborn: No longer the race born of a special pact with Bahamut as presented in Races of the Dragon, these guys have been the lesser cousins of dragons since the beginning. In the Points of Light setting, they once ruled a mighty empire later destroyed in a cataclysmic war with the Tiefling empire, and are now organized into wandering clans which sometimes serve as mercenary companies. They have a reputation as honorable warriors who keep their word, but are sometimes arrogant and easily offended. Their racial feats involve things like breath weapons and wings.
Dwarves: Pretty much the same, but their back history now involves an era in which they were slaves to giants, which explains the enmity between the two races. It is also mentioned that most races, including dwarves, no longer possess darkvision (but dwarves have low-light vision). Dwarves also no longer possess a Charisma penalty, and their racial abilities are oriented towards the defender role and underground adaptation.
As an aside, it is mentioned that dwarf women do not have beards, and the new artwork makes them look a lot more feminine, which was intentional on the part of the designers.
Elves/Eladrin: These were once the same race, along with the drow. They inhabited the Feywild, a faerie realm that exists alongside the human-dominated one, but a war precipitated by the drow split the race into three. Basically, elves embody the nature-oriented aspect of elves, and eladrin the magical one. Other elven subraces will exist, but the differences between them will simply be cultural—gray elves, sun elves and moon elves will be eladrin and wood, green and wild elves just elves. Not much is said about the racial abilities elves and eladrin possess, other than elves make for good rangers and eladrin good wizards.
It is also mentioned that 4E elves and eladrin will be taller in stature.
Halflings: These also get a stature boost, and will now be about four feet tall on average. They are now presented as a nomadic race that travels on river barges, one that is instrumental in promoting trade amongst the races, granting them something of an “invisible empire” across the land. They are differentiated from hobbits in that they are lean and athletic rather than portly (and now they wear shoes, too). Their racial abilities evidently involve luck, trickery and trade. It is also mentioned they are good at raising and training animals.
Tieflings: The 4E Tieflings evolved from the corrupt nobility of an ancient, powerful human empire that trafficked with devils to increase their power. As mentioned above, this empire was destroyed in a titanic war with the Dragonborn empire. Not much is said about their racial abilities, other than they have been expanded since 3E and they make good Warlocks. It is also once mentioned that they are “charming,” so I suppose the Charisma penalty is gone.
Other races: A Celestial race, Drow, Gnomes and Warforged are also evidently in the works, but little had been decided on at the time the book was printed, so I guess they won’t be in the first Player’s Handbook. Warforged will apparently be a core race, and it is mentioned that construct immunities will be toned down in 4E. The Celestial race will not be called the Aasimar, and will be a race “plunged through the same transforming fires” as the Tiefling. Gnomes are apparently proving problematic to design--they went through several concepts and rejected them all, with no decision having been reached at the time the book was finished.
