Purported iPhone 8 prototype leaks with questionable design

A trio of images published by Benjamin Geskin last night have gotten some folks excited (or worried, depending on your point of view). The photos appear to show an early iPhone 8 prototype, which he says was obtained from an insider.

The device pictured on the images does not have its front-facing FaceTime camera and the speaker integrated into the display, like we’re expecting in the final model due this fall.

Instead, there’s a “chin” at the top of the display, albeit thinner than on current iPhones.

The images show that the device came in the box with an iPhone 7 screen protector applied to its display. What’s more interesting than that is a blue “passport” we can clearly see in the box.

For the uninitiated, iPhone prototypes are accompanied by this passport document at all times, for quality assurance and control testing.

According to Australian leakster Sonny Dickson:

Each component or product that is tested they document in the page. The person writes their initials next to it and any notes about it passing or failing or any other comments. It makes its way through each test and person. It then is finally sent with its ‘passport’ from China to Apple.

That being said, we’re still unsure if the device shown on Geskin’s image is in fact one of the ten iPhone 8 prototypes Apple has reportedly tested this year or simply a dummy unit created based on rumors, but we’re posting it here for the sake of discussion.

So, what do you say?

Is this a real iPhone 8 prototype? And if so, does it represent the device we’re going to see this fall or one of the designs that Apple has ultimately abandoned?

Let us know by posting a comment below.