We’re just a few months away from the expected announcement, and ultimately launch, of the next iteration of Apple’s smartphone – the iPhone 5. That means rumors ought to slowly-but-steadily start churning out until then. Now we’re hearing that the iPhone 5 will retain the iPhone 4 shape, but will have a bigger screen and a metal back. Curiouser and curiouser!
It’d be interesting to see what kind of screen resolution the new iPhone 5 will have if its display does get a little bigger: whatever it is, I hope its pixel density remains at “retina display” levels. 9to5Mac speculates that the display will be large enough that the screen will stretch out all the way to either edge of the device:
We speculate that we’ll be seeing an edge-to-edge screen, like mentioned in other reports, in addition to a faster, dual-core chip to match the iPad 2. For those keeping track we were able to gather correct iPad 2 information prior to its announcement starting with cases, then the screen, finally culminating with the white iPad 2 digitizer. We’re doing something similar here with the iPhone 5, so expect some more iPhone 5-related information here in the near future.
Another interesting thing is what Apple is doing with the antenna design. The iPhone 4 was pretty flawed, and it was painfully obvious to anyone who’d ever tried to sustain a phone call or maintain decent data speeds while gripping or touching the antenna. Apple even gave out free bumpers and cases to those affected by the issue. With a rumored metal back case on the iPhone 5, will Apple be forced to use the frame as the antenna all over again?
Apparently, the iPhone 5 prototypes have been spotted at Foxconn and are now in mass production for a launch this summer. Will the new iPhone 5 use the dual-core A5 processor found in the iPad? It’s likely. Will it be thinner and lighter than the iPhone 4? It’s possible, but probably not dramatically. Will we see a dual-radio GSM/CDMA version? I’m going to guess no on that one, but we’ll see!
Disclaimer: The image above is not the iPhone 5 prototype, instead, it’s a concept device.
[Via: 9to5Mac]