A leak of alleged "iPhone 5S" photos
posted to Sina Weibo (China's Twitter-like social service), if true, would confirm much of what has already been guessed about the upcoming next iPhone model, which is widely thought to be a significant but incremental update of the iPhone 5. The specs, supposedly leaked from sources in the Chinese supply chain, add little to other reports except for the claim of a
near-field communication (NFC) antenna in the body of the device and that it will use a lower-power IGZO display to aid battery life.
The leak says that the iPhone 5S (assuming Apple calls the next model that) will see a graphic boost from a quad-core PowerVR SGX544MP4 GPU,
reports Extreme Tech. The CPU is expected to be referred to as the A7, but apart from the graphics may only see an incremental clock boost and more RAM to make it faster rather than being a fully redesigned chip. The phone is said to sport 2GB of RAM, a doubling from the current iPhone 5.
While the exterior is said to look identical to the iPhone 5 (which would not be at all unusual, given the precedent of the iPhone 4 and 4S), the 5S is expected to sport an improved camera -- a 12MP unit with dual-LED flash for better indoor pictures -- as well as a brighter yet more power-efficient IGZO four-inch display from Sharp, the first major mobile-phone debut of the technology, which has also been used in tablets and HDTVs. The iPhone 5S home button is also said to have a fingerprint scanner built into it, as has long been expected since Apple
bought Authentec back in 2012. The technology may be used to help secure the iPhone from thieves and prevent unauthorized access even when the phone is not lost or stolen.
According to the report, the iPhone 5S is on track for a mid-September launch.
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