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Purported iPhone 6s screen panels leak showing Force Touch, renders suggest 0.2mm thicker casing

iphone 6s leaks CAD
We’re ramping up to iPhone launch season and — as expected this time of year — the web is inundated with purported leaks of components, renders and images of Apple’s next smartphones. Over the weekend a couple of new, interesting leaks surfaced purportedly confirming a couple of rumors we’ve already heard. Check out our coverage of the iPhone 6s chassis from earlier in the year.

First up is arguably the most important: A display panel which seemingly adds at least a little credence to the rumors of an iPhone with Force Touch capabilities. On the surface, these screen leaks don’t look overly different to the current iPhone’s display. Look underneath and we see a small rectangle purposefully cut out from the thin metal plate which traditionally separates the screen from the other internal components.

iPhone-6s-Ecran-Force-Touch-03

We can’t say for sure that this is what the purposefully cut out hole is for, but it seems a credible suggestion. Given the fact that we’re not expecting any major design changes, but are expecting Force Touch to slowly make its away across all of Apple’s products. It could presumably be a space for the taptic engine, ensuring it sits as closely to the glass surface as possible. This is all speculation for now, so watch this space on that one.

Second up, a bunch of iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus CAD drawings surfaced over at uSwitch. If the drawings are accurate, they could serve as evidence that Apple is adjusting the thickness of its smartphones. Perhaps in response to last year’s “bendgate” controversy, or perhaps to make a little more space for extra internal components like the aforementioned taptic engine, or a larger battery. Perhaps it’s a case of Apple addressing several issues at once: iPhone durability, battery life and Force Touch.

These CAD drawings show the iPhone 6s as being 7.1mm thick. Compared to the iPhone 6 at 6.9mm, that’s an added 0.2mm. The same is true of the 6s Plus drawings, they show an increase from 7.1mm to 7.3mm.

While it might be the first time in memory Apple has made an iPhone thicker, I think it’s safe to say that in this case, it was needed. There aren’t many consumers out there who’d complain at adding a tiny bit of thickness for the sake of having a stronger iPhone with better battery life.

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Comments

  1. matthewr1990 - 9 years ago

    Whilst it true this is the first iPhone upgrade to get thicker. It’s not the first. The 5C was thicker than its counterpart.

    • applegetridofsimandjack - 9 years ago

      iPhone 5C is a phone that was launched after the iPhone 5 which was/is thinner than the 5C but the iPhone 5C was more like a new product. People consider the 5S as the iPhone 5’s successor…. And both are 7.6mm.

      • applegetridofsimandjack - 9 years ago

        @standardpull

        I did turn on background app refresh lol.

      • matthewr1990 - 9 years ago

        Exactly what I was saying, it was a new product but was on the same level as the 5, which is why I said the 6S is the first “upgrade” to get thicker, but not the first iPhone to get thicker.

    • Brandon Stevenhaagen - 9 years ago

      Actually, the first time was the iPhone 3G, which was 12.3mm, compared to the original iPhone’s 11.6mm

  2. applegetridofsimandjack - 9 years ago

    The first and last time I bought an ‘S’ iPhone was iPhone 3GS. And it was just because it was my first iPhone. After that I bought iPhone 4, iPhone 5 and iPhone 6. I never upgrade to the ‘S’ versions because it just isn’t worth the money…

    This year, if the 6S features
    -2GB of ram (very important to me, tired of seeing apps re-open and tabs refresh),
    -Force Touch
    -Improved back camera (I want a megapixel upgrade this
    time!) the camera upgrades between 4s, 5, 5S, 6 have been way too small.
    -Improved front-facing camera (Still 1.2MP 720p are you frikin serious, still the same as the iPhone 5 camera).

    Only if every one of these features are added to iPhone 6S, will I buy it. I would even sacrifice a faster processor for any one of those features.

    • standardpull - 9 years ago

      “2GB of ram (very important to me, tired of seeing apps re-open and tabs refresh)”

      Why do you think that app re-initization and tab refresh is a function of RAM?

      The examples why you want 2 GB of RAM is actually a developer’s choice/behavior, in concern with user settings.

      Your actual concerns are that (1) developers don’t make their apps background-able (2) if the user has backgrounding turned off (3) if a web page’s JS is malformed and does not conform to web standards.

      More RAM ain’t going to fix your “important” concerns.

      • colby (@Colbywankanobi) - 9 years ago

        Agreed, iOS would still treat the background apps the same for the sake of battery conservation. There is no need to keep background apps running when you are not using them, waste of battery.

      • applegetridofsimandjack - 9 years ago

        Wrong.

        Why then do you think the iPad Air 2 does not close nearly as many apps/refreshes tabs as on iPhone 6, 6 Plus and older?
        Because the iPad Air 2 has 2gb of ram.

        1GB of ram is just pathetic for such an expensive device, and the fact that the last time Apple upgraded the ram in the iPhone was 3 years ago is just pathetic.

        The added ram WILL fix those issues. Please don’t make up shît.

      • standardpull - 9 years ago

        You need to turn back background app refresh on your iPhone: Settings/General/Background App Refresh

    • chrisl84 - 9 years ago

      Knowing Apple the extra 1GB of RAM will be reserved to handle the new Force Touch sensors

  3. A bit thicker is better, the iPhone 6S is too thin and the camera lens juts out and so is the thing that hits the surface when you lay it down and stops it laying flat. Stupid SAMSUNG S3-like design.

  4. Terrence Newton - 9 years ago

    I’m annoyed at this talk of needing to have a stronger iPhone. Bendgate was not even a thing. Nothing ever came of it. Tons of phones bend, but of course iPhones are singled out because they’re iPhones. The wording of this article lends credence to the idea that bendgate is an actual issue that Apple is trying to deal with, when there is no information out there to substantiate that. And if bending was an issue, I doubt that simple adding 0.2 mm thickness would make a significant difference. The idea that the phone is being thickened for force touch is a reasonable one, but please leave 2014’s iPhone media sensations in 2014.

    • jrv6 - 9 years ago

      Bendgate was an exaggeration, but it has been encouraging vandals to bend phones at Apple’s stores. I have been stopping in to check out the 6 and the macboook, and I have seen bent phones in most of the stores. If Apple makes a stronger 6S, it wouldn’t be admitting that there was a design flaw in the 6

    • This article doesn’t even mention bendgate, i’m not even sure why you brought bendgate up, the only reason the iPhone would get thicker would be because of the Force Touch capabilities, it has nothing to do with bendgate, and making phones stronger.

  5. I doubt the thickness increase is for any reason other than the extra Force Touch layer. There’s an economy to Apple in reusing as much of the prior-generation tooling as possible with the “S” generation. This likely means that the main casing is the same thickness with extra thickness added by the Force Touch screen assembly. Otherwise, the camera nub would be the first thing to go (Jony Ive hated that compromise) and it appears to still be there.

  6. Leif Paul Ashley - 9 years ago

    .2mm thicker? Pfff can’t deal with that. ;)

    Sounds cool – can’t wait.

  7. dcperin - 9 years ago

    USB-C would be nice, but we would have probably heard of that by now if it was coming.. It would be nice if all devices (regardless of platform) supported USB-C….