Next Gen iPhone Photos Leaked? Reveals Aluminum Unibody Enclosure

MacRumors has reported that they’ve received photos of the next generation iPhone’s rear casing.

The photos reveal that the next generation iPhone could get an aluminum unibody enclosure like the iPad, Macbook Pro and Macbook Air.

MacRumors don’t seem to be convinced about the validity of the photos “given their claimed origins and other issues”.

MacRumors reports:

We have received a set of images purportedly depicting an iPad-inspired rear shell design for the next-generation iPhone. While we have questions about the validity of the images given their claimed origins and other issues, they are interesting enough that we have decided to publish them.

MacRumors has also made the following observations:

Text on the back of the claimed shell indicate that it is a 64 GB model, and the first line of small text includes Apple’s traditional “Designed by Apple in California Assembled in China” information. Unfortunately, the images are not of high enough quality to interpret the second line of text, which would contain the model number and FCC and IC ID numbers.

The images also show cutouts for the same physical features found on existing iPhone models, with a circular camera lens hole at the top left of the rear shell, space for a ring/silent switch and volume rocker along the side, and dock connector, microphone, speaker, and a pair of screw holes along the bottom.

Metadata included with the images indicates that they have passed through Photoshop CS4, with the first two images carrying yesterday’s date while the third carries a date of March 23rd.

The metadata included with the photos indicates that MacRumors source either used Photoshop to do some editing of the photos such as lighting effects etc or the so-called leaked photos are completely fake.

Apple is expected to launch the next generation iPhone in June and it is speculated that the launch date could be on June 22 along with the release of iPhone OS 4, which was previewed at a special event last week. We’ve also heard rumors that the fourth generation iPhone will be dubbed iPhone HD.

Let us know your views on the aluminum unibody enclosure for the next generation iPhone. Do you prefer it over the shiny finish of iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G?

[via MacRumors]