Rumours about Apple’s new low-cost iPhone – also known as the iPhone lite – just got a bit more concrete, with the posting of a detailed video review of the budget iPhone’s plastic casing and what it tells us about the (still officially unconfirmed) device’s physical design.
The budget iPhone plastic chassis, supposedly leaked from the iPhone lite supply chain, was carefully reviewed on YouTube by Michael Kukielka, known on the social network as DetroitBORG. Kukielka spends more than six minutes comparing the budget iPhone shell with the iPhone 3GS (with which it shares the plastic chassis and – to an extent – rounded edges), the iPhone 5 and the most recent iPod touch. If genuine, the iPhone lite case provides major clues about what we can expect physically from a budget iPhone.
The budget iPhone chassis is entirely plastic, but seems high-quality for all that, and fears that the iPhone lite would look ‘cheap’ seem unfounded at this point. The budget is set to feature a 4in screen, if the chassis is any indication, and will physically resemble a cross between the iPhone 3GS and the current (fifth-generation) iPod touch: it has rounded corners, in contrast to the sharp, mirrored chamfer on the rim of the iPhone 5, and is a lot thinner than the 3GS but thicker (and wider) than the iPod touch.
The budget iPhone has a Lightning port and single bottom-edge speaker, and has a rear-facing camera with flash.
Kukielka says he acquired the iPhone lite shell from Sonny Dickson, an Apple leaks specialist with connections in the Apple supply chain.
See also:
Apple to launch cheap iPhone for China and India
‘Europeans can’t afford expensive iPhone’, France Telecoms CEO
Low-cost iPhone to be built by Foxconn rival Pegatron – reports
Author: David Price, Editor
David has loved the iPhone since covering the original 2007 launch; later his obsession expanded to include iPad and Apple Watch. He offers advice to owners (and prospective owners) of these devices.