Is this the iPhone 5? iDealsChina sure seems to think so. They say this is an engineering diagram of the next-generation iPhone, and while it shares the same form factor as the iPhone 4, there’s one obvious difference: a larger display made possible by shaving the side bezels down to the thickness of a razor blade.
According to iDealsChina, the engineering diagrams at mold drawings used by case designers to design their wares for the coming iPhone. If true, this engineering drawing would confirm reports that an iPhone 5 with either a slightly larger display or a slightly smaller form factor than existing models will be coming this June.
At the same time, it would seemingly contradict reports that the iPhone 5 will adopt a more iPad-like, aluminum backed design to avoid the issues associated with the iPhone 4’s glass backing: weight, light leaking onto the sensor on the white iPhone 4 models, and fragility issues with slider-style cases.
[via TUAW]
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
13 responses to “Engineering Drawings Of The iPhone 5 Might Have Leaked Online”
It doesn’t prove anything, but that warm gray gradient background is that of Pro/ENGINEER (high-end mechanical CAD software). Apple uses Pro/E as well as Unigraphics to design stuff.
who’s to say that the phone in the photo dues not have a aluminum back on it, it could be a flat aluminum back just like the Iphone 4 glass but less breakable.
**yawns**
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This could definitely still have an aluminum back. Heck, I have an aluminum back on my iphone 4 right now thanks to cnn.cn. And since the antennas are on the outside, the whole back can be aluminum. You don’t need any plastic.
Apple wont make the display larger… it would take forever to make all the apps in the app store work on a bigger screen…. and developers find it hard to create logos and icons for 3 different screen sizes already (iPod, iPhone with retina display, iPad) so adding a 4th size screen will make people want to die when developing for the iOS range which is not what apple wants.
As much as I was excited at the prospect of yet another wholely redesigned iPhone, it’s not surprising (or rather, won’t be) to see that when the iPhone 5 comes out this summer that the form-factor will be very similar to the current model.
I think switching from a glass to aluminum back would be a great move but I agree what some others have commented, that a larger screen size either won’t happen, or will be a bad idea especially for app developers.