It seems the the past few weeks have been filled with leak after leak of alleged parts for Apple’s upcoming ‘iPhone 5’ with the latest photo leaking being that of a new USB cable to 8/9 pin dock connector. Whether all of these leaks are real or not are up for debate but let me give you my thought on the current situation.
Design
9to5mac reported a few weeks back what are to be leaked images of the upcoming iPhone 5 casing. It is featured to have an aluminum backing, smaller dock connector as well as the headphone jack moved to the bottom of the phone. While the image looks real, and I hope it is, i’m not holding my breath.
4″ Display
The only thing I think that’s safe to assume is that the next iPhone will include a new, larger 4 inch display: a much needed upgrade from their current 3.5″ retina display. The iOS 6 beta has revealed in its code as well to support automatic upscaling to a larger 640 x 1136 from 640 x 960.
LTE/ 4G Radio
This is looking like a real possibility as the amount of LTE towers is rapidly increasing across North America, I think the only thing that would hold Apple back from including it would be its ability to get the battery life optimized to what is acceptable for them to release in a phone. Current generation smartphones that are LTE equipped notice a much faster drain than HSPA+ speeds. This is common sense, but Apple being the way they are, if it isn’t perfect, they wont include it.
Battery
The current iPhone 4S is equipped with a 1430 mAh battery. Recently leaked images(source: 9to5mac.com) of a what is proposed to be the new battery, features a slightly larger 1440 mAh battery. How much of a difference a 10 mAh increment will make doesn’t seem like a lot in my opinion.
Processor/RAM
Recent leaks of the proposed motherboard have suggested that Apple will include the A5X dual-core cpu that is in the current 3rd generation iPad. While these are merely a speculation, I would take this one with a grain of salt. It also has been rumored to include 1 gigabyte of RAM – this one as well is nothing more than speculation and is good as anyone’s guess. My thoughts are that this will be the minimum Apple will include their next generation iPhone.
Front/Rear Camera
Leaks of the proposed front panel show that the camera has been moved to the centre, just above the earpiece. Apple’s current generation iPhone 4S includes a VGA camera which I think will be upgraded to something that will be able to support HD FaceTime. Apple kept the same VGA camera in the front since the iPhone 4 and makes sense for them to upgrade as they are focusing on advertising FaceTime more than ever with iOS 6 including the ability to FaceTime over wireless. This may or may not have an impact on the camera they choose. They may limit the camera to VGA over FaceTime to improve quality in slower connection areas and enable HD for when connected to WIFI.
The rear camera is anyones guess. I wouldn’t be surprised if they kept the same, 8-Megapixel camera that is on the iPhone 4S, with possibly some more advancements done to it. In my opinion there isn’t really a need to go above the 8MP and would be better to improve on what they already have done a great job with.
NFC
Prior to the iOS 6 announcement, I would have bet that this would for sure be included. When they announced Passbook and how it is mainly barcode based, I’m not so sure. Other than using it as a payment system, such as what Google Wallet has done, I don’t see a big use. Android has their NFC share option called ‘Android Beam’, and is nothing more than a fun gimmick in my opinion, I don’t think Google Wallet has taken off to what it had hopes of. Take this along with the fact that many businesses still aren’t PayPass/touch pay enabled, I don’t see Apple rushing into including this. They don’t look to be interested in the mobile payment game when it comes to using your credit card for making payments, and more for storing gift cards, movie tickets, sporting events etc. As of writing this, I don’t think Apple will be including NFC in its next iPhone.
Storage
16/32/64 GB are the current options. Will they be including a 128GB option for the iPhone 5? Who knows, but what I am confident of is that the 3 current options will be available.
Final Thoughts
As many leaks as there has been, and while its entirely possible, I find it extremely hard to believe all the parts all real. Has Apple, the king of secrecy, lost its touch? At this point, almost the entire phone’s parts have been leaks and while I understand the theory of ‘controlled’ leaks as well as the fact that a lot of parts are made by third party manufacturers, I don’t believe Apple believes in it. Why not? Because they don’t have to. They know the hype that is self-built around their products and as a suggested release date nears, the amount of fake parts manufactured spring out left and right. Yes, I understand the iPhone 4 was found in its whole, prototype form, but this was merely an employee mistake. While the odds are good that a lot of these parts will end up being real, don’t be surprised if its entirely different. If I know Apple, I wont be.
Feel free to share your own thoughts and comments and please, respect others opinions.
Digital Igloo 
