Metal iPhone 6 mockups make appearance at Hong Kong electronics show

Posted:
in iPhone edited April 2014
Adding to a slew of iPhone 6 related "leaks," a case maker at the 2014 Hong Kong Electronics Fair on Tuesday showed off a tooled metal mockup purportedly representative of Apple's next-generation iPhone 6.


Source: Mac Otakara


According to Mac Otakara, a number of vendors at this year's Hong Kong trade show are fielding iPhone 6 wares -- mostly cases -- in spite of an apparent lack of official specifications from Apple. The expo, put on by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), is billed as Asia's largest spring fair that highlights a variety of products from OEMs and aftermarket vendors.

One exhibitor claimed to have physical metal mocks of the iPhone 6, which the unnamed company apparently used to fabricate what looks to be slim plastic shell cases. As noted by the publication, the tooling part was rough and appeared to be finished by hand.

Interestingly, the back side of the metal mockup boasts an uncanny resemblance to a highly questionable photo from March that claimed to reveal a finished iPhone 6 chassis. Both the mockup and the alleged case back include a protruding rear-facing camera lens and single round flash module, inconsistent with current models that sport a flush-mounted lens and pill-shaped True Tone dual-LED flash.

As seen in the video below, the iPhone 6 commands a presence at the Hong Kong fair even though Apple has yet to announce the product. A number of exhibits played on the brand name to draw visitors into booths filled with unlicensed third-party accessories. For example, one vendor put up a banner reading, "iPhone 6 COMING SOON," while their booth was full of non-MFi Lightning connector components.



Apple is widely expected to launch two new iPhone models later this fall, both of which are said to sport larger displays. Noted KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a reliable track record in predicting Apple's future product offerings, recently said he believes the company will debut 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch versions of the flagship handset, though their release dates may be staggered due to low screen production yield rates.

Earlier on Tuesday, a purportedly leaked photo of an alleged iPhone 6 front plate surfaced on Chinese microblogging website Seina Weibo. Further investigation suggested the part could potentially fit a 5.1-inch screen with 16:9 aspect ratio.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 26
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Wow AI you're really scraping the bottom of the barrel here.
  • Reply 2 of 26
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    And you, as usual, are sniffing through the dregs.
  • Reply 3 of 26
    tylerk36tylerk36 Posts: 1,037member

    Clever made cast.  How sweet.

  • Reply 4 of 26
    darklitedarklite Posts: 229member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post



    Wow AI you're really scraping the bottom of the barrel here.

    I'd say this is worth covering given the similarity to previously seen stuff. I also think it's interesting that a second source seems to think it's going to have a protruding camera and a single flash.

  • Reply 5 of 26
    georgeip5georgeip5 Posts: 225member
    Looks good. Only thing is when iOS 7 came out the fine details one the iPhones design also went more flat like the camera and flash light no longer ha love the silver rings around them and the font on the back that says "iPhone" and the Voulme buttons are Helvetica nue instead of Helvetica. Overall keeps the iPhone design where every one likes it.
  • Reply 6 of 26
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    darklite wrote: »
    I'd say this is worth covering given the similarity to previously seen stuff. I also think it's interesting that a second source seems to think it's going to have a protruding camera and a single flash.
    Curious why Apple would go do away with the true tone flash they just introduced on the 5S. What if these cases are for a new iPod touch? That product wasn't updated last year.
  • Reply 7 of 26
    calfotocalfoto Posts: 70member
    Those metal mockups look pretty cheesy indeed to have come from Apple - Could have been made up by a weekend machinist in their garage.

    Has anyone ever seen or have a photo of or perhaps a genuine bonafide mockup of a previous iPhone that could be used for comparison purposes? We'd all like to see it if it exists.

    Othwise I think their only purpose is to get more foot traffic into the vendor's booth at the HK show.:no:
  • Reply 8 of 26
    chandra69chandra69 Posts: 638member

    If that 5.x'' phone allows me testing apps for all iphone screen sizes... I will buy whatever the huge-screen phone Apple makes!  Otherwise... I will stick with iPhone 5S screen size. Dont want any bigger phone!

  • Reply 9 of 26
    darklitedarklite Posts: 229member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post





    Curious why Apple would go do away with the true tone flash they just introduced on the 5S. What if these cases are for a new iPod touch? That product wasn't updated last year.

    I don't think it makes a lot of sense either, but it's possible Apple might have come up with a new flash technology. The protruding camera seems pretty odd too so it's doubly interesting that we're hearing about it again.

     

    Equally it could be an iPod touch like you suggest. Do you think Apple would go with a protruding camera / single flash on the iPod Touch if they were giving it a major refresh, or do you think they'd be unwilling to make that sort of design compromise?

  • Reply 10 of 26
    chandra69chandra69 Posts: 638member

    TIMMMM... YOU SAID YOU DOUBLED DOWN THE SECURITYYYY.  I DONT WANT THESE LEAKS PLEASEEE!!!

    :mad:

  • Reply 11 of 26
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    chandra69 wrote: »
    TIMMMM... YOU SAID YOU DOUBLED DOWN THE SECURITYYYY.  I DONT WANT THESE LEAKS PLEASEEE!!! :mad:

    1) There is no proof this is accurate.

    2) Have you ever played Blackjack? Doubling down only means you're investing double, it doesn't guarantee results. The colloquial usage by Tim means that Apple will be investing more and working harder to prevent leaks (which may be more or less than exactly double a previous amount) but it also doesn't guarantee results.
  • Reply 12 of 26
    chandra69chandra69 Posts: 638member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post





    1) There is no proof this is accurate.



    2) Have you ever played Blackjack? Doubling down only means you're investing double, it doesn't guarantee results. The colloquial usage by Tim means that Apple will be investing more and working to prevent leaks (which may be more or less than exactly double a previous amount) but it also doesn't guarantee results.

    But ... 

  • Reply 13 of 26
    rogifan wrote: »
    Curious why Apple would go do away with the true tone flash they just introduced on the 5S. What if these cases are for a new iPod touch? That product wasn't updated last year.

    Because there's no way they can fit it into a single aperture, am I right? /s
  • Reply 14 of 26
    ingelaingela Posts: 217member

    I want a bigger phone, and a lot of you want a bigger phone, but there will be a lot of people PISSED, if there is not a new iPhone in the form factor they have been accustomed to after all of these years. The 3.5 to 4" change is not the same the same as to what's in store. Wonder if there will be manufactured backlash by the media? Probably not, they do not care for sensationalism.  ...especially when it comes to Apple...

  • Reply 15 of 26
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post





    Curious why Apple would go do away with the true tone flash they just introduced on the 5S. What if these cases are for a new iPod touch? That product wasn't updated last year.

    Well that would certainly be newsworthy, no?

  • Reply 16 of 26
    ingela wrote: »
    I want a bigger phone, and a lot of you want a bigger phone, but there will be a lot of people PISSED, if there is not a new iPhone in the form factor they have been accustomed to after all of these years. The 3.5 to 4" change is not the same the same as to what's in store. Wonder if there will be manufactured backlash by the media? Probably not, they do not care for sensationalism.  ...especially when it comes to Apple...
    The pissed off iSheep will buy it anyhow.
  • Reply 17 of 26
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Ingela View Post

     

    I want a bigger phone, and a lot of you want a bigger phone, but there will be a lot of people PISSED, if there is not a new iPhone in the form factor they have been accustomed to after all of these years. The 3.5 to 4" change is not the same the same as to what's in store. Wonder if there will be manufactured backlash by the media? Probably not, they do not care for sensationalism.  ...especially when it comes to Apple...


     

    Which is why I don't think they're going to offer only one option from here on.  They don't do it in any of their other major product categories- all those devices have two screen size options.  I think 2 could suffice for this year, but I think the iPhone could potentially expand to 3 sizes- from the current 4" screen, to a 4.7" we'll very likely see here, to a 5.5" version- whether that's this year or not.

  • Reply 18 of 26
    With regard to the flash... Is it possible it's still the dual-flash, but setup concentrically instead of side-by-side? Though the Apple flash is much, much smaller, perhaps the engineers realized some amount of differential shadow effect, where two different light sources, especially differently-colored ones, that are offset from each other produce slightly different shadows around/behind an object.

    I could imagine even as small as the distance offset is on an iPhone 5s, maybe it was creating a loss of image quality, especially with the high-res optics and CCD the 5s has. Making the two colors of flash concentric would seem to essentially eliminate that problem.

    Just a thought...
  • Reply 19 of 26
    While I love the iPhone 5, the only thing I dislike is the 2-tone back. I feel it would be more minimal and clean to make it a single color / texture. The design above (while may be totally fake) still shows those lines dividing the back into 2 materials / colors. I really hope thats not the case and they move away from that design.

    Also, not a fan of high-radius corners either, the 5 has the most radius I'd like to see. The above images show higher-radius corners.
  • Reply 20 of 26
    Protruding camera in my opinion is a major fail. Its not that you have larger camera sensor its that there was more space for battery that was instead wasted on making a phone thinner. I personally rather a phone I have to charge less then a tenth of milometer thinner.
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