What makes the minified Hello World Android APK so large - 800KB?

Exclude all AppCompat libraries and you will see size decrease to about 100kb.

appcompat v7 is automatically attached even if you do not use it at all

In your build.gradle, exclude from "dependencies": compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:26.+

You'll also have to edit res\values\styles.xml to become only this:

<resources><style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Light"></style></resources>

(make sure to remove the  lines). Also, in MainActivity.java, change the extends AppCompatActivity part to

public class MainActivity extends Activity

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