An alleged photo of an iPhone 5 production line from China appears to confirm, among other things, that the iPhone’s home button will indeed undergo a major change when the iPhone 5 is released this fall. The leaked photo, which came to us from a user on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, seems to show a row of iPhone screens going through quality testing and assembly in a manufacturing plant in Taiwan. At the bottom of each iPhone screen is a large rectangular cutout for the iPhone’s home button—a major departure from the iPhone 4’s round home button.
Rumors of a change to the iPhone 5’s home button first cropped up in a report by This Is My Next, who claimed the home button area would be “enlarged, but not scrapped altogether.” The mock-up of their iPhone 5 home button can be seen below.
Recent leaked iPhone 5 case diagrams also hinted at a new button:
The idea of the home button becoming a touch-sensitive strip, or in our opinion, gaining touch capabilities in addition to continuing to function as a tactile button, was later added via speculation by rumor sites.
The production-line photo also appears to show that the iPhone’s screen size will remain at 3.7 inches, although it’s difficult to 100% confirm that from the photo. The size of the screen’s bezel appears to be about the same as the iPhone 4’s, indicating the size will remain the same.
This Is My Next’s report from April also had this interesting tidbit:
Our source says the company is doing very “interesting things” with bonded glass technology, and has been exploring designs where the earpiece and sensors are somehow behind the screen itself.
Judging from the production-line photo, cutouts for the earpiece and sensors do appear to be missing, although, again, it’s difficult to confirm this from the photos.
Yeah, no. The photograph, to Me, shows a circular home button; the same as iPhone 4 and not any ‘elongated’ version.
It’s weird because it does look bigger than iPhone 4’s button but not quit as elongated like the iPhone 5 mockups have shown.
Looks like an old pic of iphone4 screens
It would except the home button cutout is huge.
Ok that’s not an iPhone 5 case…at least, those aren’t rectangular home button cutouts. They are circles with some kind of square sticker on top of them, and some of those stickers are to the side which make it sort of look like thd new home button since the photos are not very high resolution.
Ok really. Is anyone going to belive that those are iphone5 s … Clearly that is an iphone 4 production line or whatever they are doing there . Really focus in on the home buttons in the pic. You can see the square stickers covering circle cutouts . And it dosent take a rocket scientist to know that apple has no choice but to make a larger screen at this point in the game. Those are not iphone 5s
Notice the protruding cable coming upwards? This is the back of the screen and, despite not looking elongated, we can’t judge the front of the button by the back anyways.
And why all these “leaked pics ” for far away or bas qual ??? If someone could get close enough to theis phone why not take a good pic , why r they always never distinct ? I say this alone with all others r bs.
I dont know, I dont think it is iphone 4 screens. Look at the glass at the top of the screens, it looks a lot like the first ipod touch design, where theres a black lining bit at the bottom, but on this its at the top. And I do agree, if this is the back of the screen, and there are indeed stickers over the home button, then theres no way of knowing if its circle or elongagted. LOads of articles on the net though are more or less confirming an elongated home button.