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Photos of Partially Assembled Next-Generation iPhone Show Component Layout, Thickness Comparison

I'm sorry if this has been said already, but what the hell is the huge open space in the back? I see the cut outs for the lenses, but the huge square hole?

Authentec????

EDIT: xploit beat me to it.
 
nagromme said:
I’m thinking this pic may show only PART of the new iPhone, minus some additional front-plate parts that will add (a little) thickness.

Two previous photos (below) clearly show what looks like a raised plastic lip/edge, around only the front face (similar to but smaller than the lip around the front and back glass on the 4 and 4S). The black photo could just be the front plate put on wrong (it does look crooked) but the white image shows the interior, and that lip looks real to me. Maybe the white part could be pressed in deeper? But it looks to me like it’s right where it’s meant to be.

(The third image is just a render, but it does depict the lip I’m talking about.)

I know there’s probably a plastic buffer frame between the glass and the metal. The question is: does that frame (and the glass inside it) stick up past the metal, something like current iPhones, or does sit down inside flush with the metal?

If that raised frame is real, then the screen will add thickness not shown in this new photo. I think this new photo is just the metal band and back, not a complete shell with properly-installed front glass.

I don’t like the lip, especially since it would only be on the front and not the new unibody back (asymmetry). I’d prefer the phone to be ONLY as thick as the metal band. But I’m not getting my hopes up. At least the protruding plastic edge looks smaller than on the 4/4S, and the total thickness is still less.
Click to expand...

The top right picture shows the screen not fully fitted and the bottom left is a render - not a real, leaked device.
 
To everyone complaining about the design and upset that it's leaked already and it's just a small improvement:

1st) My below statements aren't anything new, everyone has said these things already in some fashion.

The leaks are 100% legit and this is the phone that we'll be getting. Besides renderings, most leaks have 'come true' in the end. Apple doesn't have control of all it's suppliers and the millions of units/defective units that are made. In order to prep millions of devices, some parts will leak out.

From the 3G, to the 3GS, everyone was disppaointed that it wasn't 'radically different'. From the 4 to the 4S, it was the same thing. Guess what? This new design will also be around for 2 cycles.
The first iphone was radically differen than the flip phones and nokias and 1 inch 16 color screens that we had. But it can't be radically different continously. In the end it's a rectangluar piece of glass. And considering the 16:9 ratio for video is an industry standard (Walk into Costco's TV area lately?) that ratio is gonna stay for a while. We aren't gonna see an octagon phone ala a Cardassian display.

The screen stretch makes sense because they value App compatiblity. All the old apps will work with a black bar at the top, or bottom, or equally spaced. I wouldn't be surprised if the OS has an option for "fit old apps at bottom/top/equally spaced".
making it wider would mean a ton of apps would look dumb and maybe not even work properly and not every App dev is gonna update there apps.
Also, this is a huge marketing win for Apple. All the other companies are flaunting their "4.2, 4.3" screens while apple is 3.5.
For the regular consumer, when they see "4 inch iPhone" they will think that's fine as the decimals don't make that much of a difference. In reality it does as every mm counts, but this is a win for Marketing to have that big "4 inch" which people will read and forget about the "4.3" of another phone and considering it the same in their mind.

Because the iphone was so radically different 5 years ago, some expect it to keep being radically different. When the 1st one came out, it wasn't carrier supported (price), it didn't have an app store.
The 3G was the real mass market phone and it had the app store and everything else. The touch screen, the pinch and zoom, all of the patented elements that made web surfing possible. GPS!! in aphone!!
The 3GS added video recording! "ooh and ahh" (though it's 10 year old technology). A compass! (?)
Faster chip/memory is a given, so lets ignore that.
Then iphone 4 added the sleek glass design, gyroscope, high rez dispaly that was amazing and class leading. no one before had heard of a screen where "you can't see the pixels". HD video recording, amazing pictures. LED flash. And the LED flash could be a flashligh??? how cool was that.
4S brought Siri, which is cool and is the holy grail of the Star trek like "play me some classical music" and it just does it.

My point being we had some pretty big advances. Besides chip speed/memory/gfx power, we are reaching smart phone maturity.
The PC industry took 30 years (and still doesn' t have standard high rez displays).
Just like now every PC looks the same, and will just have faster raw specs, smart phones have reached the maturity in 5 years. In fact the dumb PC advanced (touch screen monitors) is just 5 years behind smart phones.

Smart phones wil become like TV's in costco, they all look the same, just pick your size.

Possible advances:
-Better camera/flash. That will continue forever.
-Faster processor/specs.
-NFC payments (coming for sure)
-Bettery battery

"Radical changes" that you may want: (which may take a few generations)
-screen projection
-Holograms
-Facial/gesture recogintion ala the Kinects (more lawsuits)
-Medical sensors (real ones)
-Weather sensors
-Distance lasers (construction, military, golf uses)
-Sensors ala star trek "1 life form, 200 meters away" (that will be a 'radical' improvement)

If I were apple, I'd head down the kinect gesture road, more Siri (not100% relying on sending data), and invest money into minaturizing and patenting as many sensors as possible. It's when the sensors are combined with great apps, that they can recreate "Oooh ahh" moments.
 
Allenbf said:
I'm sorry if this has been said already, but what the hell is the huge open space in the back? I see the cut outs for the lenses, but the huge square hole?

Authentec????

EDIT: xploit beat me to it.
Click to expand...

If you click on the link I listed it will show a close up and there you can see what I am talking about.. I think it might be an led notification

X-
 
nagromme said:
I’ve never seen an image where the glass sits flush. I’d love that! Do you have a link?
Click to expand...

This very thread.

iphone_3gs_4_5_sides.jpg


Unlike the iPhone 4/4S, the glass on the new iPhone sits flush with the thin bezel on metal unibody. That's how they've made it thinner.

7901098120_006fa86262_z.jpg
 
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miniroll32 said:
This very thread.

Image

Unlike the iPhone 4/4S, the glass on the new iPhone sits flush with the metal unibody. That's how they've made it thinner.
Click to expand...

But the photo you’ve shown doesn’t show flush glass. It doesn’t show any glass. How do we know the glass is installed at all? That could be just a partial new iPhone, not the whole thing assembled.

We know the back is flush (unibody) but I have never seen a photo showing flush front glass. Just lots of images without ANY front glass visible. Which means the glass and its lip could simply not be present in the partially-assembled thing we’re seeing.

I’d really be happy to see a photo that shows flush glass—it would look great!

(Either way, it’s still thinner than the 4/4S: there’s no back lip, and the front lip if any is much thinner than we’re used to.)

Zunjine said:
The top right picture shows the screen not fully fitted and the bottom left is a render - not a real, leaked device.
Click to expand...

Correct, as my post noted—but neither of those demonstrate that there is NOT a lip, and my third photo (the white one) shows one pretty clearly. I can see some possibility that even that one is put together wrong, but that’s still not proof, only hope.

I’d love to see proof either way.
 
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GuitarDTO said:
As someone who uses their phone with no case, I LOVE the look of the White/Black panda phone shown in the last picture. I really hope that is one of the options! I know everyone has been clamoring for a more drastic redesign, but for me personally this one is addressing the only complaints I had about the previous design....thickness, larger screen and stronger back. Can't wait.
Click to expand...

I don't care for the white phones, never have. But I LOVE your description of the "panda phone." Well done.
 
There is a video somewhere showing the glass placed into the body and it sits flush. I'll see if I can find it.
 
nagromme said:
But the photo you’ve shown doesn’t show flush glass. It doesn’t show any glass. How do we know the glass is installed at all?
Click to expand...

All the images leaked have shown the new iPhone to have its top and bottom surfaces sit flush. Again, that is how the device has been slimmed down, because on the iPhone 4/4S, the glass is raised about the outer perimeter. On the new iPhone, it sits 'within' that perimeter.
 
miniroll32 said:
All the images leaked have shown the new iPhone to have its top and bottom surfaces sit flush. Again, that is how the device has been slimmed down, because on the iPhone 4/4S, the glass is raised about the outer perimeter. On the new iPhone, it sits 'within' that perimeter.
Click to expand...

Where is any image that shows that? People are assuming, and posting images of the side that don’t even show the front. (I like the assumption, and I hope it’s true.)

I see lots of image of a metal band and back alone. They show the BACK flush clearly, and that alone does make a thinner phone. But I have never seen any image showing the front being flush. A side view in which the front isn’t even installed is what I have seen. That shows how it might look... but doesn’t prove how it WILL look. Some photos do show a lip—particularly that white disassembled one. Yes, I can see how that photo might be wrong, but that’s only a guess unless there’s some image out there I have never seen.

Geckotek said:
There is a video somewhere showing the glass placed into the body and it sits flush. I'll see if I can find it.
Click to expand...

Is it this vid? I had high hopes from this one, but the glass assembly just isn’t there at all. If there’s a vid that shows the glass installed with no lip (not just a smaller lip than the iPhone 4 but truly flush) that would convince me :) A photo, better yet!

The evidence FOR a lip isn’t conclusive, but I haven’t seen any evidence to counter it (other than the idea that it wouldn’t look as good).
 

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nagromme said:
The evidence FOR a lip isn’t conclusive, but I haven’t seen any evidence to counter it (other than the idea that it wouldn’t look as good).
Click to expand...

Look.

attachment.php


The glass on the top surface is flush at the furthest end, and then raised at the nearest end because it hasn't been installed correctly.

Sources have said that the phone is thinner than the iPhone 4/4S, and the only way to make it thinner is through having the glass sit flush.
 
nagromme said:
Is it this vid? I had high hopes from this one, but the glass assembly just isn’t there at all. If there’s a vid that shows the glass installed with no lip (not just a smaller lip than the iPhone 4 but truly flush) that would convince me :) A photo, better yet!

The evidence FOR a lip isn’t conclusive, but I haven’t seen any evidence to counter it (other than the idea that it wouldn’t look as good).
Click to expand...

the only 2 reasons i can see there being a lip for would be engineering constraint (which i really don't see) and for cases (which apple doesn't really seem to want you to use)
 
miniroll32 said:
Look.

The glass on the top surface is flush at the furthest end, and then raised at the nearest end because it hasn't been installed correctly.

Sources have said that the phone is thinner than the iPhone 4/4S, and the only way to make it thinner is through having the glass sit flush.
Click to expand...

I want what you want :) Bur your image doesn’t show that: the far end shows a thinner lip—like the one in my white photo maybe. It doesn’t show flush glass—it shows glass sticking up less than the front end.

And flush glass is not the only way to make it thinner. If the glass is not flush, the new iPhone will still be thinner even if the metal band size is unchanged. Two methods:

1. The front lip is thinner than the current front lip.

2. The back lip is entirely gone—truly flush in back as we’ve clearly seen.

That makes a thinner phone even without the front glass being flush.


Geckotek said:
This one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyOqeDfJueM
Click to expand...

My hero :) Never saw that, and it looks convincing. BUT it also looks like it is missing the plastic backing frame seen here. I’d love it if that part simply isn’t real (or is an older plan). But if it IS real, then it could make the screen sit higher than in the vid. In other words, maybe the guy in the vid has dropped the glass into a space that is meant to hold the plastic PLUS glass. It would wiggle a little then, and I don’t see that in the video. But it still worries me a bit.

(I’d buy anyway!)
 
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nagromme said:
If the glass is not flush, the new iPhone will still be thinner even if the metal band size is unchanged. Two methods:

1. The front lip is thinner than the current front lip.

2. The back lip is entirely gone—truly flush in back as we’ve clearly seen.

That makes a thinner phone even without the front glass being flush.
Click to expand...

Apple would simply not do that. Symmetry is their middle name, and they wouldn't even allow one 'lip' to be thicker or thinner than the one opposite. Therefore, the glass is flush.
 
miniroll32 said:
Apple would simply not do that. Symmetry is their middle name, and they wouldn't even allow one 'lip' to be thicker or thinner than the one opposite. Therefore, the glass is flush.
Click to expand...

Actually, when the iPhone 3G was released, a TON of people were exchanging their phones for exactly that reason. Manufacturing inconsistency I guess. :confused:
 
Mundty said:
Moving the headphones jack to the bottom was a great idea. The reason I say that is because when you grab the iPhone from your pocket, it's easier to grab it upside down and have your hand in the right position to hold it, as opposed to grabbing it facing upwards in which case you have to spin it into the proper position in your hand. Normally, there's no problem putting it in your pocket upside down but if you have headphones attached it puts unnecessary stress on the cord by having it facing down in your pocket. With the jack at the button now, you can put the phone in your pocket upside down and everything is oriented correctly even with headphones attached.
Click to expand...

Yeah - you're doing it wrong...
 
ensee said:
Yep. Maybe NFC is a go after all? Why else would you spend the time to thin out the metal body behind the logo. Actually, looking at it they've changed the drillbit for that part of the case so it's a separate milling operation.
Click to expand...

Definitely NFC. Passbook makes no sense otherwise and the machining with a different bit makes no sense unless an antenna goes there.
 
miniroll32 said:
That's quality control. The original discussion was the design.
Click to expand...

Well, I guess what I'm saying is we've seen flush and we've seen raised from Apple. At this point I lean toward them going back to flush, but I'm not 100% convinced yet....maybe 80%. :p
 
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