Just over a week ago, Sony announced that it plans on rolling out the Android 4.4 KitKat update for the Xperia Z, ZL, ZR and the Tablet Z in May. The company did not really announce a specific date in May, but given how software roll-out work, I’d expect them to release it towards the end of the month.

Now, if you are an Xperia Z owner, who is impatiently waiting for some KitKat love to land on his device, here is a piece of news that will brighten up your day (and maybe the weekend as well).

The leaked KitKat firmware comes courtesy of DooMLorD, who ported it from a developer device to work on the retail Xperia Z units. He states that the firmware is very laggy, though things can be improved greatly by switching off the animations and force enabling GPU rendering from under Developer options.

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As for the changes, the ROM includes some minor UI changes throughout the system including a transparent navigation bar and status bar on the home screen. Other notable changes include an enhanced theme manager, subtle new animations, system wide emoji support and more. All the enhancements introduced by Google in KitKat are also present.

You can find more screenshots from the leaked firmware here, while the download link and flashing instructions can be found here.