Apple iPhone 6 Rumors: Leaked Photo, Is It Authentic Or Is It An iFake?

A photo of what may be the screen of Apple’s forthcoming iPhone 6 hit the Web Sunday night. The picture, grainy and out of focus, has all of the signs of a legitimate leaked photo. The image shows the touchscreen glass for the iPhone 4s and the iPhone 5s compared to the new possible iPhone 6 screen. The bezel has disappeared from the edges of the glass and the top and bottom borders have thinned. This reduction, as some have reported, allows Apple to increase the size of the screen without increasing the size of the phone. However, this photo, and the screen displayed within, is most likely fake, and here’s why.

While the photo has neither been confirmed real or not, the quality of the image is somewhat subject to scrutiny. As many fake photos in the past, this photo is out of focus and lacks any sharp details. Compare that to the leaked iPhone 4 images, which are sharp and show the phone in different angles. The lighting is good enough to get clear definition of the iPhone, which gives the images clout. However, with the quality suspect it’s hard to determine the authenticity of the purported iPhone 6 screen.

Next we look at the home button, probably the most glaring of issues with the iPhone 6 leaked pic. The home button is not centered in between the top and bottom of the black border. Its top-most point actually grazes into the touch screen. Compare that to the iPhone 4s and iPhone 5s glass, and it’s obvious that Apple takes the center spot very seriously. It’s hard to believe, judging by how meticulously Apple designs its iPhones, that they would off-center the home button this much.

Thirdly, it has been reported that Apple is increasing the size of the screen for the iPhone 6. Both a 4.7-inch version and a 5.5-inch version have been discussed. The reduced bezel allows for an increase, but when some basic math is employed (i.e. the Pythagorean Theorem), it is clear that the iPhone 6 screen in the photo doesn’t come close to the smaller size of the rumored iPhone 6. The screen in the photo is at best around 4.2 inches. (While it is hard to determine screen size from a photo, the relationship between the iPhone 5 screen, which has a known size, and the iPhone 6 screen was used to conclude this size.)

Despite the screen in the photo’s authenticity, it does give some idea of what the next iPhone may look like. Most likely, the paint on the glass was cleverly stripped away from an iPhone 5 touchscreen, meaning that the image is probably a fake. Unfortunately, the next generation most likely won’t launch until September. We’ll just have to wait to see.