New iPhone 5S photos unfortunately reveal little new about the device

MacRumors has allegedly gotten their hands on photos of what appear to the rear shell and components of the rumored iPhone 5S. While these photos reveal little new about the device, they provide a closer picture at what we might see from Apple later this year.

Most notably, the photos depict a redesigned rear shell for the next generation iPhone, making room for a larger, dual-LED flash cutout, and presumably a higher resolution camera. Previous reports have noted that Apple has been experimenting  with a 12 or 13-megapixel camera for the iPhone 5S, along with an improved night shooting mode.

Another report from iLounge earlier this year claims that the iPhone 5S will receive an improved LED flash, which these photos depict. An improved flash, along with software optimization could achieve better low-light performance, as expected.

These new photos come after a long string of iPhone part leaks recently, and closely follow past reports. Macotakara recently showed photos of an alleged iPhone 5S logic board, which are consistent with today’s leaks.

In addition to the slate color pictured above, Apple could also be experimenting with other colors for the iPhone, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal in April and followed up with a nano-SIM tray part leak from BGR last month which also depicts additional colors.

MacRumors notes that the CPU pictured above appears to have been made in the 43rd week of 2012, which makes it unclear whether or not this phone sports an updated processor or the same A6 chip found in the iPhone 5.

Much is still unknown about this year’s iPhone lineup, with rumors of fingerprint sensors and a cheaper iPhone still being thrown around. If Apple does indeed go with an “iPhone 5S” as leaks have shown, the question on investors minds this year will be whether or not Apple can still get away with another “S” phone.