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More pictures of the iPhone 6’s front and back appear online as Apple ramps production

On Weibo, user dreamerJimmy has posted more shots of the supposed iPhone 6 design, which has shown up in photos time and time again in recent weeks. The new images are of reasonable quality, though and indicate how the larger phone would compare physically with the current iPhone 5s. The user has a good reputation for leaks, posting accurate images of the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c months before their unveiling.

In the first image, the much thinner bezels of the supposed new device can be clearly seen, to maximise the screen space on the front side. The distance between the Home Button and the display has also been shortened.

On the top side of the phone, the gaps between the FaceTime camera and speaker components have also been significantly reduced.  The hole for the front camera is also substantially larger in size, but it is unclear whether this signals upgrades to this component.

The back reflects previous leaks, with an all metal finish aside for some inlets on the top and bottom, currently assumed to be an affordance for the antenna system.

Nowhereelse.fr has also published images, pictured above, of what it claims is the iPhone 6 aluminium chassis. These pictures marry up with images posted a few days ago, which highlighted the thinness of the new phone.

As we get closer to the release for the iPhone 6, more tidbits and leaks about the product are likely to unfold, as Apple ramps production across its supply chain. Yesterday, the China Times said that Apple’s suppliers will start manufacturing circuit-boards for the phone by the end of the month. Component orders are expected to exceed 100 million.

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Comments

  1. Those bezels look much better, though the phone is still too tall. I really detest those antenna bands though, anybody else ?

    • Nat Julian Belza - 10 years ago

      I don’t like it either. I wonder what Jony Ive is thinking. Have he lost his genius?

      • Lars Evenrud - 10 years ago

        Worth noting that it’s a design *team* and that, although Ive is the lead designer and ultimately responsible, he’s more busy than ever having to lead both hardware design and UI design. He might still be pretty hands-on, but I think it’s safe to assume that the workload has shifted and that the designs Apple produce today are more of a collaborative effort than its been in the past. (bad English, just woke up)

      • RP - 10 years ago

        On the bright side, it makes the 5C look really classy by comparison..

      • Mark Choi - 10 years ago

        Um, that’s not what FUD means.

    • Yeah me to, I wouldn’t mind them if they were as slim as the 4, 5 and 5s antenna breaks on the side or if they only had a single band running across at the top and the bottom like the HTC One

    • OneOkami (@OneOkami) - 10 years ago

      I’m guessing they chose to favor height over width to maintain some degree of comfort when manipulating the phone with one hand. Keep in mind people are gonna be frequently doing so to grip the phone and press the home button/have their thumbs scanned.

      As for the bands on the rear, yeah, I’m not feeling those either. I’ve always gotten light-colored iPhones and I love my gold 5S, but if those bands are gonna stand out like that, I may be looking to get my first dark-colored iPhone in hopes that they don’t as much on that model.

      • RP - 10 years ago

        I’m beginning to think the 5.5″ version is not going to happen. If this one looks insanely tall, that one would be monstrously tall.

    • Stephen Ferrari - 10 years ago

      I don’t particularly like them, but I think they will look alot better when we get them in our hands. I think its the lighting in all these leak shots which is causing the problem. I think it will look quite sleek when we get them.
      Also, the rounded back will feel much better to hold – remember how much nicer the 3G and 3Gs were in the hand than anything since?

      The only thing I see majorly wrong is the same problem that the Samsung Galaxy phones have (I have one as my work phone) – when you pick the phone up to change the volume, in reality what you do is squeeze the phone where the volume button is, putting pressure on both sides. You don’t pick it up with one hand and delicately press the volume button with the other. The problem with the new sleep/wake button is its directly opposite the volume. Therefore every time you go to change the volume you put the phone in sleep mode by accident. I thought only Samsung was silly enough to make this mistake.

      • Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 10 years ago

        Yeah, I can’t wait for all those posts (they come out every year) which tell us something along the lines of, “I know you won’t believe it, but despite how ugly we all thought it looked, it feeels so good in the hand, and now I’m in love …”

        Blech. Don’t people realise that this is just another way of describing “marketing” and “self-delusion”???

        It’s Apple’s newest iPhone, people will love it regardless and then convince themselves after the fact that they always did. Read “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” for insight into this effect.

        Only after a year or two, when they put out a *good* looking phone again, will anyone have the courage to look back and say that this one wasn’t one of their best looking designs. Remember the “fatty” iPod nano?

      • acslater017 - 10 years ago

        I used to think the iPhone 4 was insanely thin, now it feels chunky. I used to think the iPhone 5 was awkwardly tall, now the old iPhones feel squat and square. I used think the iPhone 5 was too light, like a movie prop – now the old iPhones feel dense and unnecessarily heavy. I used to be wary of iOS 7’s bright, flat look – after 48 hours I got used to it and now iOS 6 looks like everything’s coated in vaseline.

        Mr. Grey, it’s not a matter of delusion. It’s a matter of constant refinement, and Apple’s industrial design team building things that need to be felt rather than just photographed. Things look weird when they’re new, incomplete, and photographed by amateurs – then we learn what they’re about, we see professional pictures, and get them in our hands, and fall in love.

    • Kathie Rebman - 10 years ago

      You are right it is way to tall, give some width, make it look better

    • Jonathan J Vander Veen - 10 years ago

      Agreed. It reminds me of the HTC One M8.

    • dpkonofa (@dpkonofa) - 10 years ago

      Did you guys ever consider that those bands are merely adhesive strips covering up the actual metal bands that are present on every iPhone since the 4? Bunch of knob-jobs around here…

      • axecop - 10 years ago

        Get outta here with your logic!

      • Juan Lamarca - 10 years ago

        Never thought of that…hope that is the case

    • Juan Lamarca - 10 years ago

      Same Here! Those antenna bands should be at least a bit thinner.

    • Detest them or not, they’re there for a reason. This is still a PHONE – they didn’t just decide to put them there for no reason. It’s funny though, how everyone was 100% certain those bands wouldn’t be there like in all the early mockups… shows how everybody is commonly wrong.

    • terminalcode2014 - 10 years ago

      I don’t care much for the thickness of the antenna bands but I love the overall design of the phone. There is a reason for the antenna bands which is for it to be able to make a call. And at least you don’t have to worry about glass inlays shattering when you drop the phone it’s back. Besides, your probably going to be looking at the screen of your phone more than the back of your phone anyways.

  2. Those plastic bands at the back look really ugly.

    I hope they release a plastic version of the iPhone this time around. Ditching the equivalent of the 5c due to low sales will be totally misinterpreting what the market said about this device: the specs-vs-price gap was too low to justify going for the C.

  3. Kilián Attila (@atisfix) - 10 years ago

    Interesting… Guys, do you think that the logo will be brightened that is why it has been cut out? It really looks like, that would look really neat! :-)

  4. I don’t think this is plastic, looks aluminum. Matt and polished finish. Also my opinions is that the leakers of images are just jeopardizing the business. Soon Apple will fry those guys.

  5. Magnus Kahr Jensen - 10 years ago

    I have acutally become a fan of those antenna bands, i think most people dont like them because of the muchups are poor and the colors on the pictures are bad quality. I work on design myself, and this is pretty great

    • Chris Conway - 10 years ago

      Sorry Magnus, but in my unfounded opinion, I think you and many others will just begin to like them because it seems to be the reality of the situation. “Oh well that’s what we’re going to get, so I may as well start liking it”.

      You work in design, I’m sorry to hear that you like it. They are hideous and detract majorly from the phones’ previous design standards and expectations. Two thick white bars on silver? It looks terrible and just tacked on.

      • Tim Jr. - 10 years ago

        No, just going to put a case on it anyway..

      • Hardy Thomas - 10 years ago

        I second to your thought… Apple may have made a dramatic mistake in designing those bands.. it looks like a peel off sticker at the rare back, ones that we get on some products.. otherwise a good deal. but i guess its too curved than the stylised boxed design of the original. This is what happens When all the power is taken by one person. John Ive… other great people left the organisation.

      • Magnus Kahr Jensen - 10 years ago

        When you have a phone thhis big, it would look horrible to just color the top and bottom on the phone (like the 5s) and a clean back would just look sad. Those bands brings life and simplicity to the design, trust me when you see it in person with the real colors

      • Yes (@AMillah) - 10 years ago

        Unbelievable how much people are jumping to conclusions like things are facts within their own mind. Hey Hardy, you wanna tell me how you found out the inner workings of the Apple Industrial Design group? The group has always been a small number of 15-20 members, and the same exact team has been working together with Jony Ive for 10+ years. Jony Ive didn’t “gain” more power in the ID group, he’s always had the exact same power, and he’s working with the exact same team members he’s always worked with. He assembled the group himself, and they’ve been very loyal to him for all these years. Because he treats them well. There hasn’t been an exodus of great people from the ID group, its still the same people.

        Really people, lets quit jumping to conclusions here. The design looks interesting and will grow on you. The mechanical design as well is pretty remarkable and very typical of Apple quality, the way the top and bottom edges (which are the two cellular antennas) is incredibly sophisticated in how its attached to the rest of the enclosure with the plastic separators. Just because YOU are jumping the gun and immediately rejecting the aesthetic because its different, doesn’t mean the design quality and ingenuity is any less from previous Apple products. There’s a difference between aesthetic opinion and actual industrial design quality.

  6. Emiliano Abascal Gurria - 10 years ago

    I dont Know If no body have noticed that this is just a mock up by just a simple detail: Apple would not lose a feature that is a main feature in The 5S. The dual flash. Correct me If im wrong but i have not seen The dual led flash in any of The mock ups. ¿What do you think?

  7. cjt3007 - 10 years ago

    Yep, I said it when the first “mockup” came out… those antenna bands are horrible. Especially how the parts around the curves look to get fatter than the rest of the band. #fail

  8. alphabetize1 - 10 years ago

    I really dislike the look of the antenna breaks—I think it’s ugly how they wrap around the very top and bottom of the backing. I’d be fine with that thickness if it was just straight across the back plate.

  9. I think we are mostly agreed, the antenna bands are ugly. And yes, has Jony Ive lost his mojo this time around?

    • borntofeel - 10 years ago

      I agree they look bad, and most people seem to think that way. Consequence? This is either not the final design, not for the iPhone 6, or simply fake.

  10. Seth David (@1LottoStud) - 10 years ago

    Looks legit, unfortunately. It looks just like a bigger version of an iPod touch, but uglier. If you go to “dreamer Jimmy’ page it has one more pic of him holding it up and describing it. After translating it through google he says comparing it to iPhone 5 “It’s bigger and more rounded than the 5s, also much more slippery” Yup that’s legit Apple.

    • He didn’t mean slippery. He just said it feels very tactile when “swiping” around the new screen. The translator might not be able to show you the difference, because “slippery” and “swipe” make use of the same Chinese character(「滑」). Hope it helps! :)

  11. rogifan - 10 years ago

    My god I’m so sick of stupid iPhone leaks. I just hope the final product doesn’t look exactly like this because those thick antenna bands are not aesthetically pleasing. I can’t believe Apple would chose something like that for aesthetic reasons. So either we’re not seeing a fully finished device or there’s a reason for these bands that won’t become clear until Apple announces the phone.

  12. Shaun Francis Jones - 10 years ago

    I think the Aluminium design is getting a bit boring, the design of the iPhone 5c should be used for the next generation of the iPhone. The plastic design suits the rounded edges, just like the iPhone 3gs etc.

    • Anthony Moschini - 10 years ago

      Material doesn’t effect the design of the product dramatically enough that anyone would consider it “boring”, it predominantly effects the quality and feel. Not to mention that there Apple have a plastic and aluminum product to cater for those that want it. So your argument is moot.

    • Jurgis Ŝalna - 10 years ago

      Not to mention the slippery it is going to be. I had first generation iPhone and I would constantly drop it. My parents got so fed up with it they’ve added gelaskins – plastic sticks better to hands.
      Not to mention aesthetics – iPhones 4 and 5 had a character. It was iconic. iPhone 5C looks like an Android phone.

      I really hope this is their budget model.

  13. Kathie Rebman - 10 years ago

    I would not buy the new iPhone if it looks like this! It is way to long and skinny, UGLY

  14. Kathie Rebman - 10 years ago

    If this is the 4.5 or 4.7 with this height, the 5.5 will look totally ridiculous if it is just taller and not any wider. I will have to stay with my note 3, I am hoping the bigger iPhone will look better than the 4.5 because I would like to go back to the iPhone. But won’t waste my money on a phone this ugly.

  15. frankman91 - 10 years ago

    I can’t believe that is what this thing is going to look like; it is awful. Next to the new LG it looks like a dinosaur.

    http://postimg.org/image/703h1ocs9/

  16. andreasjantschnig - 10 years ago

    Why does it have the circular camera flash again? They moved to the dual tone flash with the iPhone 5S, so did they drop it?

    • Magnus Kahr Jensen - 10 years ago

      The new cutout to the flash, looks to be bigger, so maybe they can fit the 2tone falsh in that bigger circle instead of an ovalshape

  17. a420turbo - 10 years ago

    Im surprised no one mentioned the “iPhone 6” display to me looks raised/curved in the first picture. In the second picture comparing to the rear iphone 5S the “6” again looks raised off the table.

    • Magnus Kahr Jensen - 10 years ago

      Yes i have wondered the same. in the lightning in those pictures, the screen looks awfull with that curve, but i guess we will see what happens soon

  18. Michael Bonar (@pmbonar) - 10 years ago

    There must be a find away of colouring those seams to match the aluminium that we’ve not seen yet. Seams and bands don’t radiate “Apple” design

  19. Brandon Scott Bauer - 10 years ago

    I dont know about you guys but something i hope this phone, or one of apple future phones, has a notification LED! Due to my job requirements i had to switch away from my 5S to a GS4. I needed a bigger screen and the ability to do Talk and Data on Verizon. The notification LED is a feature i really enjoy on my phone.

  20. andreww500 - 10 years ago

    Despite all of the supposed ‘leaked’ images being pretty similar, I still don’t believe that this is what the new iPhone will look like. It’s too tall, the antenna bars are too big and there is still no Truetone Flash.

  21. everinm - 10 years ago

    There’s nothing great on the next iphone, they just added existing android features to IOS8 and make the phone bigger and thinner. Innovation…. NONE
    IOS Features:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXPvnhNcMs0

    iphone 6:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVpfhoi_uOM

    The iphone 6 will be a great upgrade for those iphone users that are not smart enough to leave apple.

  22. Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 10 years ago

    Wow. Much Ugly.
    I wouldn’t buy one for my Doge.

  23. Seth David (@1LottoStud) - 10 years ago

    “The user has a good reputation for leaks, posting accurate images of the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c months before their unveiling” You mean when he posted a fake iPhone 5 and 5c? remember this: http://www.cnet.com/news/chinese-popstar-leaks-iphone-5-on-weibo/

    This is pretty bad reporting from 9to5mac, this pop star is notorious for posting FAKE mock-ups. The other Apple rumor sites quickly discredited this.

  24. 2112entropy - 10 years ago

    I think with the reduced bezel it might 4.75 or 4.8. Not sure if 4.8 is possible in that housing though.

  25. bobbell69 - 10 years ago

    Reblogged this on BobLovesTech and commented:
    It would appear that everything has been on the nail.

  26. jkruehne - 10 years ago

    yes, no good antenna back – but there might be some nice covers available to fix this issue nicely :)

  27. CJ Sheets - 10 years ago

    I’m not a fan of the antenna lines either. But the look is starting to grow on me. It looks a lot better than those mock ups anyway.

    Settle in because this will be the look of the iPhone for the next 2 years folks.

  28. charismatron - 10 years ago

    Upon seeing the new iPhone design, I was quick to make a judgement on the side of not liking it. But I have since changed my mind about it, so hear me out:

    Apple and Jony Ives have a pretty serious problem on their hands, which is that Apple design is beautiful, but it’s also become the status quo: although immensely popular, for those that didn’t grow up along with Apple, it’s all fairly standard and in design standard very often equals stagnant. This is a considerable design problem.

    So, the question is becomes how and when to re-imagine great design. The answer always involves risk, but it’s taking risks that leads to new thought, new ideas, and great new design. And this, in fact, is a large reason why we love Apple: they’re willing to take those risks on design to avoid being tiresomely standard, even when it is they whom are setting those standards.

    At first I was unhappy with the design, but having thought about what they’re doing along with what we’re seeing here, this casts a new light on a new design. It’s an unexpected break from the status quo–and isn’t that what Apple’s all about? Therefore, I don’t mind the new look because I’m in this for the long haul. It’s already starting to grow on me aesthetically, but it’s the risk taking that I love the most.

    That is all. :)

  29. standardpull - 10 years ago

    Maybe it’s just the pictures, but my sense is that this is too big for me. I don’t usually carry a purse or a school bag, but instead use a pocket. And I’m not a big huge person with cavernous jeans

    Maybe it’s better in person, or maybe I’m not part of their “consumer profile”

  30. Yes (@AMillah) - 10 years ago

    Am I the only one who thinks these are just the mockups? Apparently no, as Macrumors just posted an article saying these pictures are just the mockup. He’s trying to pass the mockups off as real. The last shot showing the inside machining, that was a previously leaked picture.

  31. why the hell its much taller and less wider, what happen to Apple design team, why they are doing this and these bezels sucks.

  32. Alex Alcantar - 10 years ago

    Kind of copied the HTC M8

  33. Matt (@Mattoligy) - 10 years ago

    God damn that is one ugly iPhone, hopefully the official cases look better so we can hide it lol

    • chrislowrymusic - 10 years ago

      It doesn’t seem possible that this is finished. There is no way that the top and bottom back plates will be the antenna. If they are not then there has to be more than the apple logo to allow for antenna to communicate effectively. Alluminum does not make a good antenna

      • chrislowrymusic - 10 years ago

        Besides I don’t see them omitting the 2 flash system. It is too good to leave out.

      • Mark Choi - 10 years ago

        They are leaving it out. This is common knowledge at this point It is being replaced by a multicolored single LED system that will be the equivalent of the current system.

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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.