Pictures of fake iPhone 5 may hint at the real thing

By Mike Dunn August 2, 2011

This might be the first iPhone rumor that doesn’t claim to have a picture of the next iPhone. What we have here are pictures of a knockoff of the next generation iPhone. The phone pictured does not match all of the wild redesign rumors we have been hearing about, but it does have a few rumored changes. What makes these pictures more interesting is the fact that the fake phone is made in the same Chinese town the real iPhones are made.

The first thing we noticed with this phone is just how good it looks from a quality point of view. The phone looks like an iPhone and nothing about it screams out “fake.” You will notice some design cues from past iPhones along with iPhone 4 styling. It looks very much like an original iPhone, but with a glass back. You will also notice the rounded glass up front and back, which has been a persistant rumor up to this point as well. The fake iPhone is only 7mm thick, which is 2.3mm thinner than the iPhone 4. The thickness might change, as clearly this fake phone won’t be packing as much horsepower under the hood as the actual iPhone.

What we don’t see in this fake phone is a larger screen or a tear-drop form factor. As we reported yesterday, the new rumor around the release date is for October, which means that it is very likely that Apple is already making the next-generation iPhone to prepare for the massive launch. There is a decent possibility of a phone being snuck out of the factory, or at least blueprints, which might be the cause of this foreshadowing copy cat.

What do you think of this phone? From what we have seen, this is the most promising design for the next iPhone. It is not a radical redesign, but it is most likely just different enough to make iPhone 4 owners want to upgrade.

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