Japanese paper Nikkei has published a new report on their website comparing the mockups of the iPhone 6 to their supply chain sources. As translated by GforGames, the report says that while the mockups offer a good estimate of the final design, some key details are omitted.
Many of the things claimed in the report are obvious discrepancies, like button misalignment, but the report hones in on the antenna design (which has been critiqued by some readers) specifically. It says that the final iPhone 6 may not feature the ‘stripes’ at all, claiming that these simply mark out an area for glass materials to replace the aluminium frame, just like the iPhone 5s. Another possibility is that the stripe appearance is still present, but the stripes will be made out of attractive highly-polished glass.
The newspaper also claims that the Apple logo effect will be created differently to the 5s, a detail not present in any of these mock-ups. On the 5s, the aluminium is polished and engraved to make the Apple shape stick out. Nikkei says that Apple will physically cut out the Apple logo in the metal this generation. This matches up with frame leaks from a few weeks ago.
Other claims by the paper seem more like guesses than ‘solid’ source-based reporting, and their credence is highly circumspect. For instance, the paper notes that it expects to see a curved display in the iPhone 6, to follow the curved body of the device. This is perhaps interesting as Bloomberg said that Apple was to introduce a curved-glass iPhone in 2014 late last year. More recent supporting evidence for this theory is non-existent however.
Apple is expected to introduce two models of iPhone, with 4.7 and 5.5 inch screens, around September.
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Reblogged this on BobLovesTech and commented:
This will please many folk out there.
Can anyone explain me the advantage of a curved display in a smartphone? I never understood it.
Who said there is one? Besides, all of those rumours showed glass with a beveled edge. And not “curved” glass.
Exactly. I think the final design will look similar to the overall look of the mockups. But with beveled edges that transition seamlessly to the metal, the phone will look like it’s a single piece of rounded material. It will break from the hard lines of iPhones 4 to 5S to a softer feel, more comfortable in the hand given the bigger size. Add to that lines that are in glass or even liquidmetal and color other than gold, and you have a very sexy phone.
I think the glass will be curved on the edges making it smooth and rounded unlike the sharp lines of the 5S.
Curved displays are only marketed by TV and phone companies because they’re taking advantage of a manufacturing defect of OLED displays. When OLED screens come off the assembly line, they are naturally curved and are expensive to flatten. Thus, you see curved screens marketed as an “upgrade” and companies make more money off a less expensive process.
“It says that the final iPhone 6 may not feature the ‘stripes’ at all, claiming that these simply mark out an area for glass materials to replace the aluminium frame, just like the iPhone 5s. Another possibility is that the stripe appearance is still present, but the stripes will be made out of attractive highly-polished glass.”
‘Another possibility’? The way I’m reading this, you’re saying the same thing twice. A mark out for glass vs. stripes made out of glass, how is that different?
They mean the white lines, that are on the back.
On the top and bottom of the mockups,
So either there will be large windows,like on the 5S and 5.
Or the white lines will in fact be glass, and the rest metal
That makes sense, thanks.
Took me a second to understand those sentences also. There is another report today 9to5 (iPhone 6 will use new display tech…could cause yield issues) published that has what seems like redundant sentences stacked on each other at the end of the first paragraph. Haven’t been able to decipher that one though.
It should say glass or ceramic I wish apple would use the patent they have for using different tensile strength and different ceramic materials to for a unibody chassis for the iPhone. Maybe they will do this for a cheaper version or even use a. Is of sapphire to do this on a high end model.
I just don’t want those stripes on the back of my phone and would most likely keep me from buying an iPhone 6.
One solid material or laminated ceramic on the back also,helps with water resistance.
Those lines really do look horrendous.
there is a signifcant typo in the headline…
Liquidmetal? Please let it be Liquidmetal. This is entirely within the realm of possibility and has been rumored since the iPhone 4.
I think that too. Why would Apple extend their exclusivity to the metal otherwise?
I want to see the phone bounce like a superball at the iPhone reveal.
Previous lines were breaks between different ant antenna – Now, with a little added thickness, the lines ARE the antenna (or at least tiny ‘windows’ for the signals). When properly announced and photographed I bet we’ll all be a lot more impressed!
This makes no sense. The radios wouldn’t work half as well having tiny complicated slits instead of a solid window. I doubt they would work at all.
Also, if the lines are the antennas, then there is no reason to put them where they currently are. It would be a better design to put lots of lines all over the back or do something creative and attractive with the lines. Hell, it would make more physical and aesthetic sense to make the lines run down the ridges of the phone so they are invisible.
It seems to me that the lines are there, because the little glass windows are still there. The little glass windows look like aluminium, but are glass.
Please let the cut-out be for an illuminated logo like the macbook! When in-use it could light up or when you get notifcation it could flash. That would be amazing.
it’s not going to light up, they’d have to put an led in there just for a pointless glowing logo – sounds too contrived for Mr Ive
And because it is pointless, they’ve had it on Macbooks for like a decade now? It’s a design aesthetic, and one I know many people would love.
Reply to hayesunt:
No, that’s different…. on a Macbook, all they have to do is cut out the logo and the backlight for the screen illuminates the logo. There’s no additional electronic components or space issues at all. In fact, if you hold up your Macbook screen to the window when off, you’ll see the logo on the other side (the screen side). It’s just a hole.
On the iPhone, this would not work because the screen is on top and behind the screen are the battery and boards. To do this on an iPhone would require a lot of extra effort for little gain. You’d need a specially designed, very flat and very small illuminating element, extremely thin so as not to add thickness to the phone. Realize that in that place is the huge battery (ever see the inside of an iPhone?)
Two complete different situations and why in the Macbook they do this because it’s super easy, but in the iPhone it would be a good amount of added complexity. I’m not saying they won’t do it, but you can’t use the Macbook as an argument for the very reasons I just explained.
I didn’t say they would implement it in the same manner as on a Macbook. I said it’s a look Apple has used before, and as such might use again. LEDs are pretty small, and one, combined with a light-directing and diffusing film would be all that’s needed. The LED wouldn’t even need to be over the logo. Anyway, whether they do it or not, I’m just saying it would be cool. No need for a technical paper on the subject.
Why can’t the cut out logo be a window for wifi signals. I wish they would use it for notifications.
Moving the power button from the top would npbe neat to have the logo be used for power.
I agree, that would be cool!!
Yeah, something else that’s needless to drain battery life even faster.
“On the 5s, the aluminium is polished and engraved to make the Apple shape stick out.”
Why does a Mac site not know how the Apple logo on an iPhone is made? It is nothing more than a foil sticker. It is not polished, nor engraved. Nor can you remove material and yet have it “stick out”. The only phone this was true on, was the original iPhone.
it’s not a foil sticker!
I don’t know what kind of shit counterfeit phone housing you’ve got, but my 5s’s logo is definitely recessed. Same with my 5. The author did not mean that it literally sticks out from the device, rather that the polished surface is easily distinguishable from the textured aluminum surrounding it.
The logo simple is not anodized were the logo is, and is why it’s slightly recessed.
Even if it looks like a sticker (and I don’t like that), it’s not. The Apple logo is what the metal actually look before it gets treated to get that polished non-reflective look. They put caches on the logo and the ‘iPhone’ text so that those parts aren’t affected.
I was under the impression the logo on the iPhone 5 and 5s was etched into the back and polished using chemical etching (they used the same process for the iPad mini 1 but not for the 2nd). I would imagine that if the logo is going to be cut out completely for the 6, they’ll simply push through the back a material (perhaps liquid metal).
This is exactly how the iPad mini 2 is made, but it’s not liquid metal. Since liquid metal is expensive and there would be no discernible reason to include it in the logo (it’s not radio-transparent), it’s more likely they will use plastic like the iPad mini 2.
Peel it off then. Go ahead, I’ll wait for pics.
The report is ridiculous because every single trackpad Apple makes is 100% glass, but looks exactly like aluminium. There wis no reason at all why what we’ve already seen could not have little windows made of exactly that kind of glass.
The idea that all the pieces were aluminium, and that the signal was supposed to “leak” out of those lines was complete nonsense in the first place. Radios don’t work like that.
we can see they’re a different material to the aluminium in all the pics. See the grey colour. The black looks like the antenna underneath. http://9to5mac.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2014/06/grab1.png?w=704&h=396
re ‘curved glass’ – see edge here… (some nokias have this detail) http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tech/i682981-8/apple-iphone-6-apparent-leaked-photos-apple-iphone-6-leak.html#~oIGlHB3ATMnovH
Isn’t the point of a mockup to be a rough approximation? Whiners shit up.
“rough approximation” ??
read…all the leaked mock-ups that we’ve been force feeding you could be all wrong. smh