Everyone wants a piece of the KitKat candybar. Even the Chinese. While current news revolves around the various older Nexus devices that are getting AOSP builds of Android 4.4 KitKat before Google completes its roll out to them, there has been little attention on other devices that are not officially in Google’s fold getting the same.
Here comes Xiaomi’s Mi2, the device has been pictured in Chinese social network Weibo’s forums running an unofficial build of Android 4.4 KitKat that is very stable and fully functional just like what you’ll spot on a Nexus 4. This is not surprising though since Xiaomi, the makers of the most popular Android custom firmware after CyanogenMod, MIUI, have followed Sony’s footsteps in going to bed with the entire Android developer community and providing kernel sources and relevant drivers publicly.
This makes it very easy to port new AOSP builds to existing devices. As you may know the Sony Xperia Z already has a stable Android 4.4 unofficial firmware build thanks to the same. Interestingly, the Mi2 is getting some KitKat love way before Xiaomi announces its KitKat upgrade plans and before the current flagship, the Mi3, gets to see Android 4.4.