Are you the type of Apple fan that gets overly excited at the prospect of leaked photos of alleged prototypes for upcoming devices – or are you so blasé about it that you couldn’t be bothered to care any less? Whichever category you might subscribe to, we here at Lure of Mac felt it was our duty to report on the latest iPhone 6 prototype pictures leaked in mid-February to the website MacRumors. Now, as we’ve written before, MacRumors is one of the most reputed news sources for all things Apple online, which is why we’re choosing to give this story some credit. The photos you are about to see were first shared with the mag’s writers on Twitter, on February 12, they came from an Australian writer who goes by the name of Sonny Dickson, and apparently they originated in China. The original post, also shared via Twitter, could not be identified and was likely taken down by the poster or a third party – but the claim remained: this is the ‘iPhone 6’. Well, is it?
Just thought we’d clear one thing up right from the get-go: as much as we’d love to tell you whether or not these pictures are real or not, there’s no way anyone is in a position to tell, judging by the images alone. In any case, there seem to be several inconsistencies with these iPhone 6 prototype pictures leaked over Twitter. For one thing, previous early prototypes of other devices (namely the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C) came with a blank shell, whereas this one has the FCC text, which is usually added later on in the production process. Then, the devices in the picture have no cutouts in either plastic or glass for the antenna, which the latest version of the iPod Touch has. The latest generation iPod Touch comes with a very similar design, encased in an aluminum body, and sports the antenna right next to the rear-facing camera.
What’s more, commenters on the original post pointed out several other inaccuracies: the textures in the image seemed to be too repetitively patterned for the image to be true, for one thing. For another, the device in the pictures is also inscribed with the wrong font. As such, based on the inferences above, it’s probably safe to conclude that the pictures aren’t real.
A plotting of the device based on the iPhone 6 prototype pictures leaked
MacRumors also accompanied its post of the iPhone 6 prototype pictures leaked with an interesting visual experiment, conducted with the aid of designer Federico Ciccarese. The website asked the artist to estimate measurements of the actual device, based on the pictures. You can find the results of his calculations illustrated below: the most important specs are the 4.7 inch diagonal and 2.3 inch width, which match those of the iPhone 5S. The photo below shows an overlay of the pictured device with the iPhone 5S and the match is self-evident.
What can we expect from the iPhone 6?
It all boils down to whom you choose to believe: some reports state that the next generation iPhone will come in several sizes, one for 4.7 inches and another somewhere in between the 5.5 and 5.7 inch markers. Like Samsung before it, the iPhone 6 might sport a bezel-free screen. Another expected boon is a thinner, lighter device, thanks to the fact that the LED backlighting is now lighter. As for design, it’s expected to become more curvy, like on the iPod touch, the iPad mini, and the iPad Air. But what the iPhone 6 is really going to act and look like—time alone can tell.
