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.

48 Comments

metrix 256 comments · 15 Years

About 7 years ago

Expecting Samsung to introduce copper so they can say we did it first.

roake 820 comments · 10 Years

I will be very disappointed if Touch ID is on the back of the phone. If there is *no* Touch ID, I will be absolutely shocked! I can't imagine Apple would just eliminate it, even if the facial recognition is perfect. There are too many cases where users cannot safely expose their face to the phone (while doing construction on a building, for example).

All that being said, I can blindly say I'll probably get one, even though I don't really know what it will do or how much it will cost. I guess I'm a fanboy.

foljs 390 comments · 15 Years

sog35 said:

Front Bezel is UGLY in white. very ugly.

Fake.

It being ugly never stopped Apple using it in several existing models.

So, if it's fake, it's not for that.

Plus, it can still be an early prototype model, before final manufacturing runs / paint jobs.

williamh 1045 comments · 13 Years

How will facial recognition work for people in hijabs and other highly concealing clothing? I chopped my smart ass remarks following that. It’s what you were thinking.

2old4fun 239 comments · 11 Years

sog35 said:

Front Bezel is UGLY in white. very ugly.

Fake.

Why is Apple using a glass back? To cut costs.

Pretty obvious that Apple shock the world with pricing:

iPhone 7s $579
iPhone 7s Plus $699

iPhone X - $799

Apple purposely leaked that the phone would be $1000+ last year. That way when the phone gets a price of $799 people would say 'that's cheap!"

If they didn't leak the expensive price, then people said Apple was ripping people off by increasing the price from $650 for the iPhone7 to $799 for the iPhoneX. Now it will look like a bargain.

To cut cost? When did Apple do anything to cut costs? They build what they want. Financials are worked out after the fact. They don’t ignore costs, it is part of the decision to go or not. They didn’t choose plastic which would have cut costs. Please crawl back into your cave and dream your dreams without bothering to post your drivel.