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Alleged ‘iPhone 6’ cases show iPod touch-like thinness as slim volume buttons leak online (Video)

A new video by Unbox Therapy has been uploaded today, directly comparing the supposed iPhone 6 cases to a fifth-generation iPod touch. The video finds that the iPod touch fits exactly inside the case — suggesting the iPhone is about 6.1mm thin. This lines up with renders from last week, which said that the iPhone 6 measured about 6mm in thinness (subject to some rounding). Supposed images of the iPhone 6’s volume buttons have also surfaced today.




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On top of this, an image purportedly showing off iPhone volume buttons appeared on Weibo (as noted on MacRumors’ forums). Compared to the current volume buttons on the iPhone 5s, these buttons are more rectangular — ‘pill’ shapes. Although it is hard to tell from the picture, if you use the + – icons as a frame of reference, these buttons seem much thinner than the current circular buttons, assumedly to fit inside an overall slimline chassis.

The new button shapes are also shown in the leaked cases. In fact, the new volume buttons seem very similar to the buttons seen on the current iPod touch.

It’s hard to believe that Apple can fit all the components of a phone into a case this thin, but every day more and more evidence surfaces supporting this outcome. Apple is expected to announce the new 4.7 inch iPhone (and potentially a 5.5 inch variant as well) later in the year.

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Comments

  1. antrikshy - 10 years ago

    inb4 “give me moar battery life i dont want thinner phone”

  2. Joel Henson - 10 years ago

    I do hope they change the volume buttons. The small rounded ones can be difficult to manage with a case on your phone.

  3. Andrew Watson - 10 years ago

    But it couldn’t be for, say, a new iPod touch with a bigger screen? Nah. Stoopid. Forget I said it.

    • PMZanetti - 10 years ago

      No. It’s not. Look at iPod sales. Look at iPhone sales. It’s for an iPhone. We wouldn’t be hearing a flurry of similar rumors and weigh in from reliable sources about an iPod.

      • Tallest Skil - 10 years ago

        I’m unsure as to how that’s not a point in favor of it being an iPod.

    • Fabio Papa - 10 years ago

      I thought the same thing, but then why the hole for the silent switch?

  4. PMZanetti - 10 years ago

    Lots of corresponding leaks: Check !
    Bloggers denying their legitimacy: Check !

    I think it’s safe to say we have a really good idea of what the next iPhone will look like.

  5. sardonick - 10 years ago

    With every update to both hardware and software, Apple is taking away the very things that drew me to the os and the device. In this case, I really like the current gen buttons and edges. I’m not looking forward to the “new” design. I’m sure it will still rock, but maybe not so much for me.

  6. drtyrell969 - 10 years ago

    Cuz that’s why I buy a phone, cuz its thin. Oh wait, I don’t care.

  7. Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 10 years ago

    The current iPod line looks great, but if making the iPhone way taller and wider is the only way they can fit phone components in that thickness, I’m not interested. It really worries me that there is absolutely no news about a 4″ model in the works.

    Thin is impressive, but so is continuing to make a 4″ flagship phone since no one else is doing it. Fit a 4″ screen in the width/height of an iPhone 4 and as thin/light as an iPhone 5 and I’d be super impressed—instant buy.

    • o0smoothies0o - 10 years ago

      The rumors say 4.7″ and 5.5″, but honestly I can’t see them not having a 4″ with the same specs as well. If anything it should be. 4″, and 4.7″, no 5.5″.

      • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 10 years ago

        we are on the same page for what we’d like to see for this fall’s lineup. I just wonder if it’s not possible and this is the route Apple has decided to go.

        No one else is making a 4″ flagship and I don’t think they could even if they wanted. The iPhone 5s beats out even larger phones in performance. But with each new model, Apple has to be faster and thinner. So what if, from and engineering standpoint, the only way to go thinner is to spread out?

        Look at what happened with the iPhone 5. Apple lagged behind android phones with getting LTE because they didn’t want to compromise on size or battery life. When the iPhone 5 came out it was marketed as the thinnest iPhone yet. But did it wasn’t really smaller. It looks like the thickness deference between the 4s and 5 is the glass back of the 4s. They swapped it out for thin and light aluminum and then spread out the components in the taller body.

        So Apple could keep struggling to make small devices which seemingly few people actually care about or be the decisively thinnest 4.3″ flagship on the market and finally deliver the big screen everyone wants.

        So while I really really really want there to be a new 4″ model, I’m setting myself up for it to go away. Who knows. Maybe the A8 and iOS 8 will be super fast and energy efficient allowing them to go thinner and keep the slim 4″ profile.

      • Pierre Calixte - 10 years ago

        yes…agreed…I really hope they don’t abandon the 4″ screen space.

        plus every time samsung or htc comes out with a new flagship they also release a mini version which tells me there’s still strong demand for that screen size.

      • rettun1 - 10 years ago

        I agree about wanting a 4 inch model greg. But keep in mind that the iPhone 5 actually had less volume than the iPhone 4, so they didn’t make it bigger in order to add components.

      • degraevesofie - 10 years ago

        I wouldn’t mind a 4″ option also, but I’m sure Apple is very careful with fragmentation. Presumably, they only want one set of new-Gen pixel dimension, so software developers don’t have to deal with too many alternatives too far into the future. A while back it was noted that if you increased the size of the pixels of an iPhone 5/5s to be equal to those of a full-size iPad, you’d get a 4.9″ phone or so. That would be great for continuity, but might be disappointing in other ways.

        I suspect Apple may want to slightly increase resolution (e.g., to be able to claim bona fide 1080p rendering capability), and maybe switch back to a 2:3 aspect ratio. If that’s the case, they’ll probably want “upward mobility” with two pixel sizes.

      • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 10 years ago

        rettun1, sure it has less volume, but what I think is that that the vast majority of the volume of the iPhone 4 was the external thickness of the glass on both sides. Not only did they swap the backing for a much thinner aluminum one but they also improved the screen mounting tech in the iPhone 5 to have a thinner screen.

        So my theory is that they pulled the thinning trick once by reducing the thickness of the outer shell but they can’t pull it twice and internal components haven’t shrunk enough to catch up with Apple’s thinness obsession.

  8. Abraham Ramirez - 10 years ago

    This iPhone will be sexy inside and out.

  9. Fabio Papa - 10 years ago

    Great analysis, but I don’t get one thing in this video … if you want to compare the thickness of two devices, don’t stack them one on top of the other, put them both face up on a flat surface next to each other! No? Stacked like in the video gives me very little feel for how much thinner it actually is.

  10. James Muze - 10 years ago

    Same volume as current iPhone just with a larger X and Y dimension / bigger screen…. sounds like apple to me … “We made the screen size .7 inch’s larger but kept the phone volume the same” I’d buy it

    • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 10 years ago

      based on the measurements in the other post it would be more volume than the iPhone 5s.

      iPhone 6*: 138 * 67 * 6 = 55476
      iPhone 5s: 123.8 * 58.6 * 7.6 = 55135.568

      They can say it’s thinner but they can’t claim it’s the same or less volume. It’s a bigger phone.

      • James Muze - 10 years ago

        You do realize that that is less than a percent volume difference ? .6% to be exact so the measurements for this story just have to be wrong a couple points off a mm or rounded up to miss being quite nearly the same volume

  11. Pierre Calixte - 10 years ago

    the video is very interesting and makes a good argument.

    One thing I disagree on is the commentator’s assertion that a thinner phone will lead to a smaller battery which would be true if the phone just got thinner while the other dimensions stayed the same. but the case would asserts that the next gen iphone is not only thinner but significantly larger as well. so we might in fact get a bigger battery and if the new, larger screen isn’t a battery hog, we might get better battery life as well.

  12. rlowhit - 10 years ago

    With rounded edges and aluminum would one find it more easy to drop or slip through their hands?

  13. rettun1 - 10 years ago

    Any connection between this story and the rumor about a protruding camera? Is there some truth to it now? (Hope not)

  14. confluxnz - 10 years ago

    Maybe the iPod touch fits exactly inside the case because it’s the new iPod touch, and not the new iphone? Can’t say I’d want such a thin phone. Personally I always felt like the iPhone 4S had the perfect depth.

  15. Richard Everson - 10 years ago

    i hate apples urge and need to make thinner phones,
    what is the trade off for a thinner phone?
    i would rather keep the current thickness, and change the form factor in other ways

  16. Ilko Sarafski - 10 years ago

    The thin/thick game is annoying. Yes, thinner is maybe sexier but they could’ve hold on at least one more generation for the change. This is the way to impress the masses and on the other hand to show that you care about 9to5-people-alike. With current thickness and 4.7″ they could’ve make +2-3 hours of battery life. Now we’ll see same bat life in thinner body. Boring!

  17. Misleading demonstration… Sorry but every tiny single millimeter matters when you’re dealing with this level of thickness http://www.nowhereelse.fr/video-epaisseur-iphone-6-vs-ipod-touch-97056/

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Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Benjamin Mayo

Benjamin develops iOS apps professionally and covers Apple news and rumors for 9to5Mac. Listen to Benjamin, every week, on the Happy Hour podcast. Check out his personal blog. Message Benjamin over email or Twitter.