There's very little to go on at this point, just a series of photos posted to a forum by a device repair company, but if their suspicions are correct, this could be the front panel of the
presumably upcoming "iPhone 4G." iResQ claims to have obtained the sample part from a "reputable source" that has provided genuine parts to it in the past, parts which iResQ uses for repairing products -- even if those products don't exist yet. Interestingly, the LCD is factory glued to the digitizer on this 4G wannabe (like on the original iPhone), as opposed to them being separate elements on the 3G and 3GS, meaning higher replacement costs. But most notable about this face part is the fact that it's roughly 1/4-inch taller than previous generations. Your guess is as good as ours as to
why it's taller, since the screens themselves seems very similarly sized. We're also incredibly curious as to whether this here face would line up with that supposed
4G midboard we saw a little while ago. So, elaborate scam by iResQ to get its name up in lights? Prank played by a fun-loving parts supplier? Earth shattering iPhone form factor change unearthed? And just what is that "reflective surface" supposed to be for? Beats us. The flip side of the screen can be seen after the break.
[Thanks, Todd F.]
posted February 13th 2010 11:45PM
i wish they would get my 3g coverage working before they dive into 4g.
@goff
err you know the 4G has nothing to do with cellular networks right?
@goff
I'm sure it's 4g, as in fourth generation.
@goff
Engadget means 4th generation ;)
@goff if your gonna troll try trolling try not to fail horribly at it.
@everyone
MAH bad. i fail. maybe if they changed the design i would have noticed a difference. there is a lot of 4g coverage talk in the philly region.
@Yankfan81
Then they should say 4th Generation or something to that effect. Apple called its second-gen iPhone the "iPhone 3G" so it's logical to assume that the 4G refers to the wireless technology.
@Ignotus
Thank you!
@Ignotus Thank you x2
Its normal to assume the 4G Technology since iphone 3G had 3G tech.
Anyhow I truly hope apple doesnt call the next iphone 3G SS or 4G or makes it of the same design.
The name is tired, and the design is tired. "Look 2 Phones of similar name and look!" Re-design the look!!!
@IvanP91
LOL, the 3G SS, and its cousin, the 3Gestapo!
@Ignotus Lol, i noticed it what I did just a second after i posted the comment. :)
@chiefy May I correct you? It actually does, Sprint has just been the only one to pull it off and w/ cery limited coverage.
@chiefy ?
more old news?
wait wait, i might see into the future, were going to get a post about comments being turned of soon, and after that engadget will tell us they have revamped the site. and then they will tell us capitals in the middle of names are wrong, bar the iPhone ofc.
Engadget this was posted a week ago (Feb 8th) ... plz fix the source to : http://www.iresq.com/blog/?p=462
@goff Yeah! As for the officials of the iPhone 4G, it seems the probability of it having a 5mp camera and an upgraded procs seems to be confirmed by an officer in bloomber. http://bit.ly/tablet-iphone-4G-officials
@goff
No, you've totally got a point. US mobile infrastructure is broken. US carrier subsidy contract model is broken, artificially limiting choice and causing our phone bills to be higher than everywhere else in the world. I don't care your flavor of OS, existing smart phone experience here is dismal, and AT&T (and others) should innovate their networks and earn their customers by providing quality service at a competitive value, not hooking you with a (once) trendy phone then holding you hostage with an ETF.
@goff So much for an LED display.....
@goff will it support flash? LOL
@Ignotus so when the 3GS came out, it would have been normal to assume it's for the 3GS cellular network? ;o)
@Toshiba The iPhone/iPad and even Safari will never support flash in it's native form. It's a processor hog. You want your device battery life to be about 2 hours. Adobe claims it has a version of Flash that will work just fine on the iPad, but Apple is backing HTML5, a standard that it has more control over. Flash is buggy. Flash is a power hog. Flash is "proprietary". Flash is used to create those annoying Web ads.
@IvanP91 You are SO right, my guess: if Apple doesn't improve the design (and thus not just a new shiny back), the hot breath from Google and Nokia could become very prominent.
@madmac
Agreed, calling it '4th gen' would make more sense
@Steve Miller
Crap...I totally missed everyone else's Nazi related jokes...FAIL.
@Steve Miller I"d buy one to go with my hopped-up GM musclecar.
@madmac Engadget is referring to 4G as in 4th generation and not connection. It really should be stated as iPhone (1st gen), 2G iPhone (iPhone 3g), 3G iPhone (iPhone 3GS), and 4G iPhone (tbd). Confusing?
I find it kind of funny how the "3G" suffix on the iPhone was originally a designation for it's third generation mobile telecommunications support, even though it was the second generation of the iPhone hardware. Then the 3GS came along, which meant it used a 3G mobile network, and the "S" stood for "speed" since it supported the faster 7.2Mbps HSPA 3G network and also had faster internal hardware, though this actually was the third generation of iPhone hardware.
Now the term "4G" is being thrown around in respect to the the fourth generation of iPhone hardware, even though the "3" in 3G was always a designation for its mobile network, not its generation of hardware. This kind of leads to some confusion, as if this device is going to support a 4G mobile network such as LTE, which is crazy because AT&T is going to have zero LTE network rollout by the time the next iPhone would come out.
Honestly, for the time being, I'll just called this thing the iPhone 4th Gen. It's the same naming system i used with the iPod Touch. Either way, I don't expect Apple to call the 4th gen iPhone the "4G" and they'll actually come up with a relevant, easily memorable suffix.
I'm also curious to see what this thing actually is and if they've taken any risks or done anything major, since the 3G and 3GS were just catchup devices in a lot of ways. They added features to keep up with the rest of the market and didn't do too much new or innovative. Let's see if that changes.
@Ignotus
iphone3Gsx ..imho
s is for sux, s if for sux
x is for xtra size and xtra money to shell out for it.
y? cuz apple sez so... Amazing, Wonderful; u buy Now!
@goff The latest about the verizon iPhone is that, it could be released later on 2011, and in fact, a rumor that an "iPhone HD" version will be release this year. Updates. http://j.mp/verizon-iphone-4g
Looks are still the same plain design.
I wish engadget would stop putting one or two photos or something "after the break" so I have to leave my rss reader to see them - more clicks and more revenue, really annoying.
@cswright
oh so you havent really noticed how websites make money :p
@cswright you can see all the pretty pics without the website bloat in the webos engadget app. (and I assume the iphone and blackberry apps are similar.)
@Alexpeegs
Thats what I was thinking, they could at least make the screeen a bit bigger and shrink the top/bottom bezel down.
@Alexpeegs
you know, about it being taller.
the 2 above don't seem to be quite on the same level for comparison:
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/4302/previewlevel.jpg
@Alexpeegs
I LOL'd when I saw the picture at the top of the site.
"OMG, a NEW design for the iPhone!!!!"..
@(Unverified) no i noticed. Make intuitive and useful features that benefit the reader/user, and revenue follows suit. Look how many comments and hits and revenue they got when the ability to exclude certain posts was included. Probably 3 lines of effort that shouldve been there from the beginning
And so it beings...
@impulse4621 *begins -_-
@impulse4621 Nah. I'm pretty sure its beings.
@impulse4621
It began a bit TOO EARLY this year.
@impulse4621
I'm holding off on a phone purchase until I see this thing.
My nexus one laughs at that screen size...and the HD2 laughs at both of them.
@B3astofthe3ast and the Dell mini 5 is ROFLing at them all
@B3astofthe3ast
Oh man i hate it where guys compare sizes
@B3astofthe3ast
Agree! Unless apple install the lastest generation of SUPER AMOLED display on to the iphone 4thG. or at less current gen. AMOLED instead of last generation LCD display, I ain't going to upgrade my 3Gs this year.
@wussup That's what she said!
@B3astofthe3ast
is it just me or are those two plates the same length? the one on the right is thicker (higher) and so the angle of the shot makes it look longer.
@MrJimlad I think you may be onto something here....an optical illusion.
"AMOLED instead of last generation LCD display, I ain't going to upgrade my 3Gs this year."
Haven't we already been through this a few times? OLED wears out prematurely and unevenly. This is a puny screen. The current iPhone screen is perfectly adequate for a device of this size, and you get greater longevity and daylight viewability. What, exactly, do you think you're going to gain from OLED?
The constant harping about OLED, with no rationale, is really played out and tiresome.