Apple’s iPhone 5: An All Glass Future iPhone Would Be Nice, But Does The Risk Of Breakage Outweigh The Advantages? (Specs Roundup)

iPhone 5 rumor mill has been supercharged into overdrive in the past few months with speculations flying all around the media world, faster than any product's news in the super smartphone arena.

The latest speculation for the upcoming device is backed up by recent news reports on Engadget, which suggests that Apple has come up with a patent. According to the report, all the upcoming iOS Devices from the Cupertino company -- including the most talked about and to be launched iPhone 5 -- would be made entirely from glass.

In its patent application, Apple said, The enclosure can be formed from a hollow glass tube or two glass members bonded together. A laser frit bonding process may be used to hermetically seal the two glass members together to create a water resistant electronic device.

Adding on the same, reports on Mashables suggest that Apple has decided to introduce its devices in glass as it would also be radio transparent and would be a suitable material for an enclosure of an electronic device capable of wireless communications.

The patent application suggests that parts of the case may be opaque to keep sensors from being affected by light. Moreover, the all new glass iPhone 5 with an advantage of being hermetically sealed and so water resistant has been treated with Liquipel, the water repellent coating which has been rumored for the iPhone 5.

However, after all this, the major worry would be how tough a glass iPhone would be, but Apple is certainly talking tough enough in the patent application. The company notes, Some of the reasons for using glass over other materials are that glass is strong, stiff, and radio transparent.

In addition, Apple has claimed that Corning makes the majority of the iPhone's glass and it will likely to increase the strength of the iPhone 5 by using the recently-released Gorilla Glass 2. The new Gorilla Glass 2, which is made by the Corning company, will be thinner and stronger than previous models, which means it will be more durable and harder to crack in case the phone is accidentally dropped.

Consequently, even if potential breakage is not an issue, there is also the jeopardy of scratches to contend with. Further, it should be noted that if the device is hermetically sealed and waterproof, what about the port openings?

Rumor has it that there may be no need for port for charging and other tasks, as the future smartphone is expected to escalate to wireless technology for every single feature and requirements.

Furthermore, the patent added that some parts like the front screen would be transparent and the rest of the handset would be painted. Currently, iPhone 4 and 4S are made from two pieces of glass and a steel frame.

Here is a roundup of the rumored features of iPhone 5

Display: The latest iPhone 5 has no shortage of speculation on what screen size it could have or should have to surpass the competition of the bigger screen which is booming recently in the smartphone industry.

The newest rumor points that Apple has planned to stick with the current 3.5-inch screen size instead of the gigantic 4.6-inch screen, which some media reports quoted earlier this week.

Further, iPhone 5 is rumored to come with a 1280 x720 pixel of resolution (367 ppi) with a Quantum Dot LED curved glass edge-to-edge display.

Processor: Another upgrade expected in the upcoming iPhone model is that it would be powered by an A6 chip. It will be a superfast 1.2 to 1.5 GHz processor with 1GB or more of RAM to offer amazing processing capabilities to iPhone 5.

An unnamed source, who claims to have an iPad 3 prototype, sent Boy Genius Report pictures of a diagnostic tool called iBoot, which states a chip model number that appears to be that of the A6 chip.

iOS 6 Software: Going through the records, Apple always has launched a new device with an upgraded version of operating system. Speculations are widespread that an update to iOS 6.0 is possible by the time of the iPhone 5 release later this year.

Ars Technica has published an analysis that suggests some Apple products are already running on iOS 6 software. The analysis would suggest that Apple is either doing a test run on some of its new products. Hence new software is expected at the Worldwide Developers Conference, where the iOS 5 software was revealed last year.

Camera: Considering Android smartphones are increasingly coming with 8 megapixel cameras, iPhone 5 is also expected to feature something similar or even higher. Another rumor indicated that iPhone 5 may even have a 3D camera.

Battery Life: Rumor has it that iPhone 5 will have better battery life than the Li-Po 1420 mAh battery in iPhone 4S that gives up to 8 hours of talk time on 3G and up to 14 hours on 2G (GSM).

It is a known fact that iPhone 4S's battery life is one of its most criticized features. Apple tried to fix the bug with an iOS 5.0.1 update and while some users said that it had improved their battery life, others complained that the performance was not good enough. Therefore, it is likely that Apple is focusing on overall higher battery life and performance, which is paramount if it keeps introducing battery draining features like Siri.

4G LTE: On top of a new battery and a possible Retina display screen rumors, the iPhone 5 will feature the latest and greatest version of Wi-Fi technology - 4G LTE. Currently, the only Apple product with LTE (long term evolution) technology is the new iPad, but that number is expected to grow enormously by the end of the year.

NFC: According to a recent report by Insane Planet, the NFC technology on the iPhone 5 is becoming a huge possibility. The report cited a Patently Apple post regarding an Apple patent application about iWallet and NFC, and said that Apple had granted a patent for iWallet to payments via NFC and diagrams passed from Apple to the Patent & Trademark Office in the US shows an iPhone which may possibly be the iPhone 5.

The idea of the iWallet is to let individuals buy things by merely using their iPhone 5 or any other device of Apple. This means that the user does not need to bring a credit card to a store with NFC support, the report added.

Release Date and Pricing

When is the iPhone 5 expected to come out? Currently, it is the biggest chatter that seems to surround the media world, and the recent rumors suggest that the second half of 2012 or Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2012 are the two possible timings when iPhone 5 would be announced.

One of the industry analysts Chris Caso of Susquehanna Financial told the LA Times that iPhone 5 production was expected to start around by June.

However, a post report on Japanese blog Macotakara has said that the next iPhone will be released in September or October, and this cycle seems to be kept for years. As iPhone 4S was also released at the same time last fall, Apple definitely likes to space out the release of its iterative products.

In connection with the iPhone 5 price, it would not be shocking if the price of the future iPhone substantially is larger than that of iPhone 4S. Considering the economics of smartphones, the trend is upside at this stage.