More Photos from Claimed Next-Generation iPhone Include Front Panel with Centered FaceTime Camera

[paradox00]

I suspect, whatever way the jack ends up going, well quickly come to terms with it.

Yeah, and Samsung will adjust their designs

 

[shiraume]

Two tone back

One possibility for the new material on the back - to make the iPhone more durable as a touch-and-pay iWallet.

 

[klooney]

This may just be a prototype and not the real product that will be released this Sept/Oct, we still have a lot of time before the release for Apple to change their minds and/or use a different design. Anybody remember the change in the iPad case design right before it was released?

 

[Rocko1]

I just got wood

You need help.

 

[e-coli]

One possibility for the new material on the back - to make the iPhone more durable as a touch-and-pay iWallet.

I really hope this is true.

 

[kustardking]

nothing like this ?
Image

Image

Won't rest flat, so I think not.

 

[daneoni]

I like it. Will be a good step up from iPhone 4/4S design.

 

[PsychOK]

If this phone comes out, somebody is really going to have to convince me what the benefit of extending the screen would be besides just watching movies in widescreen format. Otherwise, I can't see myself sticking with Apple once I am done using my 4S. I would really like a bigger screen. Something comparable to the HTC One X or Galaxy S and this just doesn't cut it.

 

[charlieegan3]

the white one doesn't have the designed by Apple in California bit, but the black does?

 

[JHankwitz]

Maybe I'm just used to Mr. Blurrycam now, but these pictures almost look fake!

Because rumor pictures are always fake. What could we show without Photoshop?

 

[aztooh]

I like it. Will be a good step up from iPhone 4/4S design.

What?! It's the SAME design.

 

[Tones2]

Given that this is the day of the SG3 release, you gotta believe this is a controlled leak. However, without any real evidence of anything that is better than the iPhone 4 (like a bigger screen), it's hard to say what benefit this would have given Apple to do a controlled leak in this manner, so maybe not.

In other words, never mind...

 

[Rogifan]

Well the two photos of the purported white phone are different. One has black colored logo and font the other doesn't. No way do I believe this is the final design. Apple's design team does a ton of prototyping. For all we know these are prototypes that will never see the light of day.

 

[Macopotamus]

The contrasting colors on the top and bottom of the back look really - hate to say it about an Apple design - ugly. And what's up with the Apple logo being basically invisible? Maybe it's the camera angle, hmm.

Excited about the aluminum enclosure though, no more broken rear glass!

 

[Menopause]

Oh mother of mutation, that's UGLY!

 

[Prof.]

Headphone jack is at the bottom. This is a fake.*

*from a reliable source.

Let the down voting of my post commence!

 

[stridemat]

All of these part leaks makes me feel like we will see this sometime this Summer instead of fall. Maybe that is just because I WANT to see it sometime this summer though.

My thoughts exactly. These seem like the rumours that we get leading up to a launch.

Fingers crossed!

 

[ivladster]

Although it does look real, only Apple can make such metal work on the inside. Few possibilities:
1. Old prototype that Apple leaks on purpose to create hype
2. Chinese made-fake to get some hype.
3. Old iPhone 5 that Steve Jobs killed before it went too far.

I really don't see this being Ive's work at all. The metal back with small glass parts on sides? Ugly, huge holes for speaker?

No this is not Apple.

 

[Mortalias]

Interesting things to note:

The little hole between camera and flash. Most likely the microphone moving up for better audio capture with video recording, making both openings at the bottom speakers only.

The band around the black model seems to be black as well, yet the same color of silver on the white model as on the 4/4S.

Camera lens looks even better.

 

[Macopotamus]

I like it. Will be a good step up from iPhone 4/4S design.

It does look very much like an incremental design change from the 4/4S, a bit of a departure from their past. The iPhone 2G to iPhone 3GS to iPhone 4 were all huge design changes.

 

[AkeGust]

Would this be liquidmetal then, in stead of your scratchy regular garden variety aluminium?

 

[efengle]

Reason headphone is on the bottom...

Anyone think the reason the headphone jack is on the bottom (if this is true) would be for the fact that they would want a better quality front-facing camera?

A better quality FF camera would most likely require a larger module, thus the need to move the headphone jack.

 

[applefanDrew]

Apple better do something good with the next iPhone, and quick. If they don't, the competition is going to come in and destroy them. Far better rival phones are popping up left and right, such as the Samsung Galaxy 3. The galaxy s3 has faster mobile networking through LTE support, a far faster quad core CPU, a better GPU, double the ram, a larger battery, a higher resolution and larger screen, better wifi support with access to 5ghz bands, better front and rear cameras, NFC support, an SD slot that will allow up to 128Gb of memory, etc... Why any one would buy any iPhone at this point is a mystery.

The ecosystem of apps, music, and iCloud is why.

 

[JHankwitz]

Originally Posted by e-coli
The way you hold your phone, drop your arm to your side and slip it in your pocket, the phone is always upside down, making the headphone jack on the bottom really reasonable as a design decision

Unless you wear a suit, in which case your phone goes into your breast pocket the right way up...

Why would you need to do that? I don't recall ever viewing or wanting to view my iPhone while it was in my breast pocket. I usually pull it out first, which naturally inverts it for appropriate viewing.

 

[orangebluedevil]

While it's wise not to rush to judgment of a design based on leaked and incomplete parts it's also probably a good idea to consider that Ive and his team have developed a strong design philosophy at Apple and they're unlikely to break from it easily.

That design philosophy is about form following function. Remember when people made such a noise about the seams on the iPhone 4? It later turned out that they served a function and they weren't just random lines. I wonder if we aren't seeing something similar here.

Assuming this does represent what the final design will broadly look like, might the different materials not serve a purpose? Either as part of a more advanced antenna or maybe even as an input mechanism? Touch sensitve panels on the back, similar to that on the PS Vita maybe?

Let's give Jony and his team the benefit of the doubt, eh? I mean, sure, not every design they come out with is a world beater but they have had a fair few more hits than misses over the last decade. Let's wait and see because this may look rather nice when fully finished and properly presented and it may even transpire that these apparently superfluous design features are important in some way that we couldn't yet know about.

You are looking at it backwards, instead of saying "why is the center made of metal?" which is obviously for structural support when you look at the internal pictures. You need to think "why are the top and bottom plastic?" In which case you can surmise that it's for the camera hole and continuity with the front panel.

It's definitely a shame that it's not solid metal and the camera pokes through the metal. If you want to guess what Ive's was doing, then try to guess that reason.