Svelte iPhone 5 concept slims down Apple’s popular smartphone

By Scott Younker May 15, 2012

Last week, the design firm [FUSE]Chicken launched a Kickstarter campaign for the Une Bobine iPhone accessory. The Une Bobine — French for “a coil” — is a metal coil that can stand up and keeps your iPhone off of tabletops or wrapped around your arm — we’ve included an image of the Une Bobine in the gallery above. Chicken’s project is already completely funded, even though it has only been up for just a week (the funding goal was a reasonable $9,800).

To celebrate the launch of their campaign, and the surprisingly quick rise to their goal, Chicken created a series of iPhone 5 concepts for fans’ enjoyment.

The design retains that Apple feel but there are several marked differences. The home button is more ovular than circular and the 4-inch widescreen multi-touch display takes up far more space than it does on the 4S. Currently, the 4S comes with a 3.5-inch display, however, Chicken’s design is actually smaller than the 4S, with a height of 4.14-inches compared to the 4S’ 4.5-inch height. It’s also thinner with the widest point having a depth of .257-inches inches compared to .37-inches on a Apple’s current model.

We’re particular fans of the beveled edges that the iPhone concept features. It adds a fresh design to the somewhat blocky style that the Apple uses, while still retaining an Apple look. Inside, Chicken has a 10-megapixel iSight camera on the back with a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. It also has quad speakers for stereo in landscape and portrait modes plus a central headphone jack.

We’ve scoured the Chicken’s concept images and from what we can tell, the design removes the power button that is generally on top of the iPhone. Instead, two of the quad speakers are featured on top with the headphone jack, while the other two are on the bottom of the set.

At the moment, we have no idea if or when Apple will actually release the iPhone 5. The last rumor we knew of came out two weeks ago and hinted at an iPhone 5 reveal during WWDC next month.

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