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Is this the iPhone 6c? Video purportedly shows new 4-inch iPhone, looks just like an iPhone 6s

Screen Shot 2016-01-21 at 11.29.11

Apple is currently expected to hold an event in March to announce a slew of new products, notably including a new addition to the iPhone lineup. The 4-inch iPhone is expected to be released by April, and MIC Gadget claims to have a hands-on with new unreleased iPhone straight from the Foxconn factory. Unsurprisingly, the purported new ‘iPhone 6c‘ looks just like an iPhone 6s, but smaller. The latest rumors indicate it will also have similar internals, featuring Apple A9 SoC and NFC for Apple Pay.


From our iPhone 6c mockup gallery last month

The validity of the video cannot be confirmed. The ratios of the speaker holes is very similar to the 4.7 inch phone so it’s not 100% that this phone is actually smaller (perhaps the camera guy has big hands). The video also does not include a comparison with other iPhones to confirm the relative size, but they claim it is legit and MIC Gadget has a reasonable history of obtaining device hands-on ahead of time. Watch the 40 second clip and decide for yourself, after the break …

Naming for the new 4-inch iPhone is unclear. Most sites are referring to the device as the iPhone 6c, given its smaller size and natural lower-tier place in the lineup. It also shares a lot of its design and performance from the iPhone 6 series. That being said, there has also been some speculation it may be called the iPhone 7c, so it aligns with Apple’s newest-generation phone lineup coming in the fall. (There was also a really-sketchy rumor that Apple was considering a ‘5e’ name.)

Sadly, the video doesn’t reveal much. It’s pretty boring … if this is legit, everyone will quickly be able to grasp the concept of the new iPhone addition coming in a couple of months. Take a 4.7 inch iPhone 6s and shrink it down. Expect the leaks to continue in the coming weeks as Apple ramps production of this new model. For those unexcited by this, you’ll likely have to wait until late 2016 for Apple to unveil its ‘real’ new iPhone for 2017, the iPhone 7, which is expected to feature significant internal upgrades and external design changes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8la5yjlPcs

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Comments

  1. Štěpán Pazderka - 8 years ago

    It seems like typical iPhone 6 to me

  2. Modulaire Zitbanken - 8 years ago

    These aren’t really Apple “rumours”, they are deliberate leaks, and read so. They have become predictable as well. Apple has enormous resources to keep future products entirely secret and it really should. I long for the day of genuine surprises at launch.

    • Rio (@Crzy_rio) - 8 years ago

      are you kidding me?

      Their supply chain is GIANT and leaks are inevitable. They may be able to contain their leaks in the US but it is so incredibly hard to do so in China. Especially since so many people are trying to find the next leak.

    • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

      Yeah no current resources can protect things from leaking. Things won’t leak when it is all made by robots.

  3. ishan24 - 8 years ago

    I don’t think that apple will iPhone 6c with the similar design because i thought they were going to give many more colours. (Actually this video does not suggests that apple will same 4 colours only, some more can be included)

    • They tried that with the iPhone 5C which was a big failure because they looked too cheap, and people didn’t want to own “the poor mans iPhone.” If Apple will introduce a 6c or 7c that offers more colours, I expect them to have the same design as the top range, just with aluminium dyed red, blue and green, next to the gold and pink gold variations..

      • PMZanetti - 8 years ago

        I love people like you who claim that the 5C was a failure, you must’ve missed every single article after article after article citing numbers and sales figures, and usage data that indicates the 5C was at least as popular as the iPhone 6 Plus.

      • twelve01 - 8 years ago

        Failure? It was one of the top selling models for many carriers in the US for a time.

      • just-a-random-dude - 8 years ago

        It wasn’t a failure and no one I know with an iPhone 5C said it felt cheap. In fact, some said they prefer it. The casing they use is better quality and not the cheap plastic ones.

      • iphonery - 8 years ago

        Big failure? Both my sons have an iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c(blue). As a matter of fact, we gave the 5c to the youngest because we thought it would handle the drops better than the 5. The 5 didn’t hold up to well and the 5c is still going strong to this day.

      • crichton007 - 8 years ago

        There were many people who weren’t interested in owning one and they are the type to read sites like this. I happen to know several people who own a 5C and they were all happy with them. They were also mostly people who had their phones bought for them by their employer.

        I was interested in the design and would have considered getting one but didn’t like the lower end specs. Apple makes some nice items with “lower quality” materials.

      • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

        The iPhone 5C is amazing. In design, feel, quality, and aesthetic. My nephew has a blue one and it is awesome. Sorry to say, but they made a great phone out of a polycarbonate case. It also did much better than you think.

      • Asbjørn Ulsberg - 8 years ago

        I believe the main problem with 5C was its price, not its looks. Had it been $100 cheaper, it would have sold like crazy. So I’m one of those who wish iPhone 6C looks more like the 6th generation iPod Touch than the iPhone 6S. I think the 6th generation iPod Touches are gorgeous.

  4. pointum - 8 years ago

    Just a guy with huge hands. Move along :D

  5. sebmeza - 8 years ago

    They should’ve compared the size to an iPhone 6s and 6s Plus… If it’s really 4 inches.

    Anyway, I’d say it could be called iPhone 6s mini? iPhone 6 mini (because of the lack of 3D Touch)? It wouldn’t be called 7c because it has the design of the 6!

    • pointum - 8 years ago

      They match perfectly. See my gif here in the comments.

  6. jedimindtrick99 - 8 years ago

    Meh

  7. tomtubbs - 8 years ago

    Should be able to calculate from the size of the Home button?

    • irelandjnr - 8 years ago

      You are very clever in thinking of this. Someone do this.

    • Robert - 8 years ago

      Yes! If you measure a few components and calculate the ratio between their relative sizes you will conclude that it is just a regular iPhone 6 or 6s.

      Someone got a whole lot of hits on UTube with this! Probably made good money for the five minutes it took to create the video.

    • AbsarokaSheriff - 8 years ago

      You are insightful. By doing your suggested calculation (x for home button diameter), I get for width 2.5 times for suggested model, vs 3 for 6s, for length 8 vs 10. 20x^2 vs 30x^2. Using the 4.7″ vs 4.0″ screen and the height to width ratio of 1334 to 750 this is inline with a 9.4 sq in vs 6.82 sq in which is 20 to 28 vs 20 to 30.

      The hands look normal.

      So either they did a very good job of lighting, scaling, and angling the phone or it is possibly legitimate. I am betting on the latter.

  8. AeronPeryton - 8 years ago

    What’s the deal with the water damage on your counter, dude?

  9. 2is1toomany - 8 years ago

    I call BS because the gold color variant went away from the 5s and the 6 & 6+ after the 6s and 6s + was launched. Why the hell would they make a cheaper phone in gold…???

  10. Walter Tizzano - 8 years ago

    I’d be really happy if they do it; I currently have the iPhone 6, but it’s too big, I can’t understand why they abandoned 4”, which was a much more reasonable size for a phone. If they do a 4” device which isn’t less powerful than the bigger ones I’ll definitely go for it. And smaller doesn’t necessarily mean cheaper or less powerful; in fact, it should be the bigger one to be cheaper as it’s much easier and requires less engineering effort to fit the components in a bigger volume.

    • Jon C (@JonCBK) - 8 years ago

      If it looks like this, I think it is going to have about the same powered internals as the current 6. Now that would be an impressive engineering feat. But a year and a half after the release of the 6, it might be possible to basically squeeze a 6 into 4″ device. Battery life might be poor, but I suspect folks that would buy a 4″ these days that have 6 internals are not folks really hammering on their smartphone for hours each day.

    • PhilBoogie - 8 years ago

      QFT:

      “I’ll definitely go for it. And smaller doesn’t necessarily mean cheaper or less powerful; in fact, it should be the bigger one to be cheaper as it’s much easier and requires less engineering effort to fit the components in a bigger volume.”

      Spot on sir! People seem to miss this part, and think a larger device is some tech marvel. But it isn’t, when compared to a smaller device.

    • jacosta45 - 8 years ago

      Your thinking may make sense but consumers had been wanting bigger phones for a while before 6/6+. Apple couldn’t ignore it any longer as people were switching from iPhone to Android mainly because of the bigger screens. The 6/6S is usable with one hand, although I do miss the 4″ size sometimes.

  11. pointum - 8 years ago

    Oh, look! I got one too! http://imgur.com/8EmttM1

  12. rogifan - 8 years ago

    So the cheaper 4″ phone is coming in gold even though Apple got rid of it for the mid-range? Not believable. Also there’s no way Apple is going to hold an event to announce a new 4″ phone that looks just like the 6 series. If this is legit it will be a silent update online with maybe a press release. Similar to the new iPod touch that came out last year.

  13. chrisl84 - 8 years ago

    Headphone jack? FAKE, right!

  14. ロハン増進 - 8 years ago

    Another failure !

  15. Terry (@TerryNL) - 8 years ago

    “Naming for the new 4-inch iPhone is unclear. Most sites are referring to the device as the iPhone 6c, given its smaller size and natural lower-tier place in the lineup. It also shares a lot of its design and performance from the iPhone 6 series.”

    ‘Natural lower-tier place’, really? My guess: this is just a smaller 6s and it will be ‘tiered’ accordingly, which is middle tier. The iPhone 6 will be lower tier.

  16. Gagik Stepanyan - 8 years ago

    Completely false. Just a mockup of scaled down 6s (or 6). Any 4-inch iPhone should have the Power button above, not on the right side. It is canonical.

  17. Jason Rodway (@HLReiku) - 8 years ago

    Can’t this just be a well made chinese knock off running Ando?

  18. Not sure if I buy it. I do believe Apple should make a 4″ iPhone that’s similar in features to the other iPhones (small / medium / large – something for everyone) but I don’t think this is it. Doesn’t line up with other rumors that have Apple ditching the headphone jack. And where better to do it than the smallest phone, where space is at a premium. Obviously just because it’s there now doesn’t mean it’ll be in the final product, just one reason to speculate on the authenticity.

    • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 8 years ago

      I’d like to think this too. If this is Apple’s answer to people who want a smaller phone I think they missed the mark. I would gladly spend more money on a smaller phone with interesting design and fully featured (not necessarily fully specked).

      This product isn’t that. I could see it replacing the 6 and 6 plus in the lineup to simplify the line – push more sales onto the newer 6s line since cheaper big phone alternatives won’t exist but this will be there as an entry level device. The 5s might drop from the line too except in some markets.

      I’m hoping that we see a new line of iphone this fall alongside the normal 7 expectation if this 4″ phone ends up being like the 6.

  19. ytsethunder - 8 years ago

    Benjamin doing a good job of racking up those hits haha

  20. rettun1 - 8 years ago

    This seems fake to me, given the home button size and bezel spacing.

    However, I would take a 4 inch “6-design” like this and have it include 3D Touch and A9 over a thinner, newly designed four incher (but if the new one is sexy enough, who knows)

  21. Its a 5/5s with custom housing from aliexpress :P

  22. pdoobs - 8 years ago

    someone smarter than me could probably figure out the possible size of this thing based on assumptions of the size of those tiles.

  23. Maybe he has giant monster hands, and that made this phone look small, it looks just like the iphone 6/6s

  24. sword2pen - 8 years ago

    Probably just a large handed man

  25. Piyush Bhalala - 8 years ago

    i have one piece of this model in rose gold color for buying email me on umbrellascorporation@gmail.com this is a 6s mini model. rarely available in marker i have 1 piece in stock in just 21k indian buyer only

  26. mircokaempfer - 8 years ago

    iPhone 7 in 2017, wait, what?

  27. Fitness With Chelsea - 8 years ago

    I’d be interested. Simply because I have small hands, the change from a 5S to the 6 may be small, but I find navigating one handed a lot harder, let alone harder to hold/handle on the 6. I miss my 5S.

Author

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.