Update: These appear to be fake…
Sonny Dickson has posted images today which claim to show the casing for the next generation iPhone. The metal shell, which closely resembled both the industrial design of the current iPod touch and iPad Air, appears to be of unibody construction. While it’s impossible to verify the legitimacy of these images at this time, they provide an interesting look at what Apple might be planning.
We’ve been hearing reports that the next iPhone will feature a larger, sapphire crystal display, and these images support those rumors, sporting what looks like much larger casing. The report also hints that the current iPhone 5s may stick around, but be manufactured out of cheaper materials, alongside both 4.7 and 5.5″ iPhone models. But what does that mean for this shell?
We’ve got lots more images in the full gallery below:
Here’s an extremely rough mockup of the iPhone 5’s casing superimposed over Dickson’s image, showing possible size differences between the two cases.
Next generation iPhone rumors have varied far and wide at this point, with the WSJ claiming Apple is testing prototype 4.7 and 5.7″, or even 4.8 to 6″ iPhone displays, while Bloomberg has noted Apple may be planning on larger, curved displays. Of course, at this point, we’re still 8 months or so out from a new iPhone, and Apple tests a wide variety of designs, so it’s very likely things could still change quite a bit.
