The Apple iPhone 5 will feature a 4-inch edge-to-edge display, if images said to be leaked engineering drawings are correct.
iDealsChina.com
has posted images it says are leaked mold engineering renderings of the Apple
iPhone 5, provided to third-party manufacturers to create cases for the
smartphone, which is expected to launch this June.
Consumer
Reports snubbed the Verizon iPhone 4 in January, calling it
"middle-aged." The site noted that while most new Android smartphones
feature 4-inch displays, the iPhone is still at 3.5 inches. The renderings,
however, show the iPhone 5 to play catch-up-featuring a 4-inch display but in a
form factor the same size as the iPhone 4. Apple appears to have made this
possible "by shaving the side bezels down to the thickness of a razor
blade," reports
CultofMac.com.
While rumors
have additionally emerged that the iPhone 5 will feature a curved back, the
images show it to stay true to the iPhone 4's design. The images also indicate
that still other rumors suggesting that Apple will forgo the iPhone's glass
back for an aluminum one are incorrect.
A March 7
report in Taiwan's Economic Daily News, for example, said Apple will
emphasize aluminum over glass, and possibly
eliminate the exterior antenna rim design that led to the
"Antennagate" fiasco that continues to plague Apple. (Most recently,
Consumer Reports said it couldn't recommend the Verizon iPhone 4, due to its
poor antenna reception.)
Teardowns of
the Verizon iPhone 4 have revealed other hints at what Apple might unveil come
June. iFixit discovered that Apple has replaced a Broadcom GPS chip with a
Qualcomm MDM600. While the chip, according to an iHS iSuppli teardown, likely
offers Apple a cost savings, it also supports both CDMA (Code Division Multiple
Access) and GSM technologies-the former of which is used by Verizon Wireless
and the latter of which AT&T, along with most European carriers, supports.
"Can it
be that Apple's thinking of using this chip in iPad 2? Or maybe when the iPhone
5 is released there will be just one phone for both Verizon and AT&T?"
iFixit's M.J. wondered in a Feb. 7 video, ahead of the iPad 2's official
introduction. "That would be great."
Apple is
notoriously tight-lipped about its product plans-giving zero hints until CEO
Steve Jobs himself introduces the company's latest and greatest-which tends to
leave a market that's anxious for details on what's next to speculate for
itself.
Other such speculations include talk that the iPhone 5 will
feature Apple's A5 processor, which the company included in the iPad 2, as well
as higher-resolution cameras, hardware upgraded to enable 3G FaceTime video
conferencing and NFC (near-field communication) technology. In August, Apple
hired an NFC expert as the new product manager for mobile commerce, and over
the summer also published a number of NFC-related patents.
Android-running
smartphones are also expected to feature NFC-which could effectively enable
smartphones to act as a wallet, and in a manner said to be more secure than a
credit card swipe. In November, Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile
announced they would be working together on Isis, a commerce network based on
NFC.
Nokia has for years included NFC on some handsets.
"It adds further value to the handset and ultimately the consumer, by
allowing access to new services and digital content on their mobile easily and
conveniently," a Nokia spokesperson told eWEEK.
Whether future
iPhone users will be among those consumers, we'll have to wait until June to
find out.
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