iPhone 5 proximity sensor turns up at importer

Phone part importer SW-Box added to rumors Thursday after visitors found an iPhone 5 Proximity Light Sensor Flex Cable in its catalog. The design of the face-detecting component appears closely related to that of the iPhone 4 but, along with subtler reworkings, doesn't have the current model's microphone. While slight, the change if real would prove that the new model is at least a partial redesign.

The cabling is clearly not a direct knockoff as it has "evidence of solid engineering," according to the store description.

SW-Box is elusive on how exactly it got the part. It claims to have offices near the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen where iPhones are made and obtained the part after "research and intel." Most likely, the company followed the illegal practices of other small outfits in the area, which sometimes pay off key workers at Foxconn and other companies to get either blueprints or the parts themselves. Such activities led to the arrests of Foxconn staff earlier this year for allegedly giving away iPad 2 information to make cases even before the Apple tablet arrived.

Such parts can sometimes be less than representative of the final product as Apple or other hardware designers can make last-minute changes to reflect updates. Production may have already started on the iPhone with an aim for a September or October ship date, however, and if so would be committed to finished hardware. [via Chronic and and MacRumors]

By Electronista Staff