You’ll probably remember that before the iPhone 4S was announced, it was pretty much open season on rumors. We had all kinds of them.
If you believed the rumors, we were going to get a new, smaller iPhone with a larger screen. It was going to be thinner, too. It was going to be even more awesome than something that’s really awesome, and we were going to need one. Badly.
What we did get was the iPhone 4S, and while we’re not saying that’s a bad thing, it’s no iPhone 5. But was there any truth to some of those iPhone 5 rumors after all? According to one Business Insider source, there may just have been some…
Citing a source that (as always) didn’t want to be named, and admitting that they cannot verify any of the claims, Business Insider has published details on what it believes was set to be the iPhone we actually got last month. According to the source, Apple was seesawing between the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5, with the former being chosen eventually.
Just to add a little weight to their claims, this source even says they played with the handset, and goes on to describe what they saw. So, what did we miss out on?
- The first thing we’re missing is a larger display. The source suggests that the iPhone 5 prototype was around 4″ large. They say Apple’s top execs, including Steve Jobs, were not sure about the possible fragmentation a larger screen could cause.
- Al all-aluminum back panel, just as the rumors suggested. Think iPad 2, and you’re thinking right.
- Interestingly, the source says the screen’s color profile was all wrong, suggesting that Apple had crippled it to hide its true prowess. AMOLED, perhaps?
- No physical Home Button. We’d had reports of this before the iPhone 4S launch, too.
- A 10 megapixel camera, because, you know, more megapixels are always better.
As we kept saying when these rumors were doing the rounds the first time, we’re offering a handy pinch of salt to go with this information. That said, it is all interesting, depending on whether you believe Business Insiders’ source or not.
We’ll leave it up to you to decide.