Third-gen iPhone bezel leaked by vendor?
updated 07:40 am EDT, Thu May 28, 2009
Third Gen iPhone Bezel
Some details of the next-generation iPhone's design may have been slipped out late Wednesday thanks to a Hong Kong parts seller's listing. China Ontrade claims to be the first with a replacement third-generation iPhone's bezel and says it comes "directly from [the] factory." The design is substantially different than today's and would have a black metallic frame instead of chrome. It also stops near the very top of the shell rather than running a complete circle like existing iPhone models, and appears to move the phone speaker significantly higher.
The authenticity of the bezel is difficult to determine. Many firms in the area do have access (often unauthorized) to parts from factories, but there is no way to verify that China Ontrade has the authentic part and not that for a different company's device. Part leaks from China have nonetheless confirmed Apple products in the past, such as the unibody MacBook.
If real, the bezel would rebuff earlier beliefs that the new iPhones are internal upgrades alone rather than redesigns. [via iLounge]
UNIBODY
05/28, 08:39am (1 reply) reply
could the iphone go UNIBODY ?
mullum
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Joined: Oct 2007
LCD Display
05/28, 09:32am reply
China Ontrade's site also reveals the "3G 2009" LCD screen which is also on sale. The site diagrams the difference in the LCD connector from the old model to the new one. From the pictures, one can see the new display has a similar form factor to the original, but the change in connector design implies it is not interchangeable with the old iPhone 3G display.
http://www.chinaontrade.com/apple-iphone-3gen-2009-lcd-screen-original-p-269.html
Zanziboy
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Joined: Aug 2008
new connector?
05/28, 10:47am reply
Could a new connector translate to a higher resolution screen? OLED?
jdonahoe
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Joined: Jul 2006
Re: unibody
05/28, 11:13am reply
No way. There's a reason Apple went plastic on the back of version 2. The metal case was killing reception. Don't you remember how bad the airport was in the original Powerbook G4s? Even the iPod Touch has a small plastic cap on it for the wifi signal.
But maybe unibody would help all those people complaining about how easily it is to get moisture in the device, firing off those water sensors.
testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001
oh
05/28, 11:14am (1 reply) reply
And all this over a piece of plastic or metal (can you really tell from these pictures?) that could just as easily be for some iPhone knock-off device sold in China.
testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001
You see that bezel...
05/28, 11:32am (1 reply) reply
...it's frickin' amazing. The black bezel proves that the Palm Pre is so dead. Look for Apple share price to jump when Wall Street sees this amazing piece of technology. Vendors shouldn't be leaking top secret parts to the press.
Constable Odo
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Joined: Aug 2007