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New dummy unit of Apple's 'iPhone 8' shows off alleged gold/copper color

Photos of a supposed "iPhone 8" design dummy published on Wednesday depict the device in a rumored gold/copper color, though the dummy's provenance is unknown.

The dummy is consistent with other "iPhone 8" rumors pointing to a glass back, a vertically-aligned dual-lens camera, and an edge-to-edge OLED display with a sensor "notch" at the top. Several photos of the mockup were shared by Giga.de editor Ben Miller.

The unit is similar to hardware that recently appeared on China's Weibo, down to the notch and front bezels being all-white. It's more likely that shipping phones will make these sections black so as to blend with the display.

On Tuesday, well-connected KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that the "iPhone 8" will launch this September in three colors: black, silver, and gold. That would mark a sharp reduction versus the iPhone 7, which is available in six — black, "jet" black, silver, gold, rose gold, and finally (Product)Red.

A decision to scale back may have been made because of production issues. Kuo has predicted that as few as 2 to 4 million units could be ready this quarter, even if manufacturing scales up rapidly.

The "iPhone 8" should offer features like an "A11" processor, 3D facial recognition, and faster and/or wireless charging. A physical home button should be replaced with a virtual one, though it's still uncertain how Apple will cope with Touch ID if it doesn't just replace it with facial recognition.