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Double debunk: bezel-free iPhones, sapphire iWatch only?

Apple-iPhone-6-concept

Two Apple rumors have popped up today originating from the KoreaHerald and Chinese media outlet MyDrivers (via Gforgames) that claim to share new details about upcoming next-generation iPhones. The first report from MyDrivers claims that industry sources from Taiwan say Apple won’t move to sapphire for the next-gen iPhone display. It cites cost and limited production capacity, but claims Apple is prototyping an “iPhone 6” with sapphire display anyway. The biggest problem with this report— apart from the site’s track record— is that Apple recently acquired enough equipment for its new Arizona sapphire plant to produce 100-200 million 5-inch iPhone displays a year. While the report adds that Apple will likely use sapphire for the rumored iWatch display, it’s certainly preparing its Arizona plant to produce much beyond just that product.

Next we have the KoreaHerald report claiming that both Samsung and Apple are working on bezel-less displays and that Apple is prototyping one that includes a fingerprint sensor:

The source said that Samsung’s top rival Apple is also testing a similar prototype sporting a bezel-less screen that features a fingerprint scanner.

Apple of course prototypes various designs before deciding on final specs for a next-generation device. Even if it is prototyping a bezel-less design, with the iPhone likely still around 8 months out, the prototype might never see the light of day. We’ve already had reports from much more reputable publications that Apple is testing displays at 4.7 and 5.7-inches, and then 4.8 to 6-inches in size, and then curved, and that was even before the iPhone 5S shipped. Clearly the company is toying with several ideas, but today’s reports don’t hold much weight in terms of determining what we’ll likely see in the next generation device eight months from now.

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Comments

  1. Daniel Precel - 10 years ago

    Now THAT’S a nice rendering!

  2. Tallest Skil - 10 years ago

    As mockups go… that’s sort of pretty. Why morons are obsessed with getting rid of the Home Button, I’ll never know, but it doesn’t stop that from being well done.

  3. Hendrik Alschner - 10 years ago

    NO, I would never want this phone as it ha been rendered above. Small bezel looks good, but is not user friendly as we are dealing with a touch screen. The current side bezel is perfect. And even more so with thickness: The rendering shows a much too fragile device. Its giving away precious battery space + sturdiness for no benefits. If you want bigger screen, then the new iPhone just needs to get bigger, saving bezel space is no solution.

    If it’s about saving gross height then they have to find some replacement for the home button. But for symmetry reasons that’d also mean to shrink/replace/reposition speaker and front cam. I doubt all this will happen. For saving gross width, the only solution would be to bend the device, but that would be bad for horizontal use of the phone. Further, a smartphone today is not just a handheld device but often docked, so curved form is no solution too. However you turn it, the device needs to grow in size significantly for more screen estate.

    I just was out snowboarding and was happy to have such a compact device as it is today. I could imagine a smaller iPad Mini but no bigger screen iPhone. If you sit & read with your iPhone you may wish for a larger one, but you’d notice 99 other moments where bigger is not better. There’s good reason we have the exact same screen width for 7 years now.

  4. fbbwang - 10 years ago

    I’m sincerely & respectfully hoping that 9to5mac, and every other tech news site, would stop using this chinese site, MyDrivers, as a news source. I’ve also posted this to Phonearena once before. I used to be a tech writer at a taiwanese site not long ago. MyDrivers would be (and still is) constantly stealing our real life product testing articles (and not just ours, of course) such as benchmarks, performance reviews, etc. our editors would spend days running a test, and this website would just steal it right from us by changing the Traditional Chinese font (used mainly in Taiwan) to Simplified Chinese (used in China and most other countries where there is Chinese population, such as Singapore & Malaysia), and putting a watermark right over the photos we took. Not only are the people at MyDrivers completely shameless, their reports are often shady and unreliable, and definitely NOT ORIGINAL – As many of you are already aware, the whole concept of “copyright infringement” never has successfully spread in China, From the fact that they are always stealing from us, I’d have to assume that they do this to everybody else too, which means they could be randomly grabbing any news article from any site they want, and turning it into their own “original report”, since they’ve somehow developed into a “bigger scale” site, and many people outside of (or even within) China would automatically think they are legit and trustworthy. But the truth is they’re totally the opposite. You might see some of their predicts being correct at times, thats could only be that they happened to have “used” a report from a reliable website. With all the respect and love I have for 9to5Mac, I certainly would not wish to see you folks using MyDrivers, an unreliable & unoriginal website, as a source, which can affect the reputation of your well establish website. Thank you.

  5. brian reed - 10 years ago

    My mockup
    I think they won’t reduce the size of the finger print sensor, they will move away from the round side buttons for the volume, it will adopt the speaker holes of the 5c, They’re not gonna go with a cliche like a curved screen. NFC and wireless charging might be implemented

    128 gb max, 32 min memory. 1.5 ghz i8 and a coprocessor
    10 mp camera with higher frame rate for slo-mo
    Sapphire used for back “windows” and front glass

    http://forums.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=460209&d=1391959869

  6. niharm33 - 9 years ago

    I like that font. Futura MT/Tw. Cen. MT. It seems better suiting for the iPhone than helvetica.

    • niharm33 - 9 years ago

      I think that’s what iOS 7 needed to fit its new theme. I hope the iPhone 7 changes their font to this.

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.