It's unknown if the early release was intentional or not, but nevertheless it's still out. Reddit user Onlyadirector confirmed it to be fully working and including some previously unmentioned features. As seen in the screenshot above, Minecraft PE 0.7.4 supports connecting to servers by IP address rather than through Realms alone. You can also add servers by IP to a list, similar to the desktop version.
Personally I've been waiting for this feature for a while now, and I'm excited to see it finally come to life. Now we wait for the Google Play and App Store releases :)
Source: Amazon