AppleInsider Staff
A set of photographs from a Japanese website surfaced on Thursday, supposedly showing a widely rumored gold colored "iPhone 5S" shell in various comparison shots with two current generation iPhone 5 handsets.
The images come from cellular phone parts dealer Moumantai and were published to the blog of weekly Japanese tech magazine ASCII Plus (via Nowhereelse.fr).
From the photos, it appears that the supposed "champagne" iPhone 5S casing has no significant design variations compared to the iPhone 5, including button layout, speaker holes and SIM card lot position. Everything from the rear antenna windows to the highly polished chamfered edges are identical.
Rumors are heating up with an expected launch date close at hand. The latest hot topic is a new gold color option for the next generation iPhone, which some sources have described as a more elegant "champagne" hue, not a gaudy "ingot." Parts hinting at the new color choice have been circulating for some time, but not much attention was paid until a supposed shell appeared last week.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, who has a reliable track record in predicting Apple product announcements, said last week that the gold case color will be offered alongside the traditional black and silver options currently seen with the iPhone 5. He also sees Apple introducing a new 128GB storage option for the 5S, which is expected to feature revamped internals and a fingerprint sensor.
It is speculated that if Apple is indeed planning to introduce a gold version of the iPhone 5S, the move may be a play at the booming Chinese handset market. Recent research has shown that color preference is trending toward gold and orange in the Asia-Pacific region.
Apple is rumored to announce its next iPhone model at a special event on Sept. 10, with a rollout to follow shortly thereafter.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
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81 Comments
Looks great!
From the looks of it this is just the current iPhone 5 v2. My expectations for the 2014 line up: iPhone 5s (better camera, more sensors, fingerprint recognition) in black, white, champagne iPhone 5e (global LTE support) in black, white, champagne iPhone 5c (plastic shell, no LTE) in multiple colors
OMG Earth shattering!!
Very nice but what color are the missing top and bottom parts?
They could actually be black, white or champagne.
That color looks exactly like my car which is billed as "champagne gold". It doesn't look blingy or tacky at all, in fact the car is very forgettable because a lot of things in Southern California are the dry tan color.