The picture above has been circulating the internet for a couple of months, with many speculating that it might be the iPhone 5. At a glance, you can be forgiven for thinking so. For one, the aluminium strip around the phone is reminiscent of what we see on the iPhone 4. Also, the three metal contacts looks like the inclusion of a NFC (Near Field Communication) chip, which is widely regarded as being included in the newest iPhone incarnation which will be released at the end of the American summer.
However, if you look more closely at the bottom of the screen, you will see three buttons which are characteristically Android-like. That rules out, without a doubt, that it could be an Apple product.
With all the legal mudslinging going on between Apple and Android phone makers, most notably Samsung and HTC, since 2010 over patent and copyright infringements (to refresh your memory check here), Apple would not so brazenly change their one physical home button for this layout. So why would an Android phone maker use a design so blatantly copied from Apple?
Well, it seems our friends in China are a bit oblivious to the goings-on in Europe and the US at the moment. They are locked in a competition to produce the world‘s thinnest smartphone. Huawei is not a very well-known brand, but that changed after they revealed the Huawei Ascend P1 S earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. It wowed journalists by being only 6.68 mm thick, with good specs to boot. Although that is very impressive, the image above is not a Huawei. It now holds the crown for being the world‘s thinnest smartphone. This design belongs to the Chinese company Oppo and is a mere 6.65 mm thick. Unfortunately, we don‘t have any specifications for the phone as of yet.
Smartphones have quickly and dramatically reduced their weight and size in recent years. At the same time, the screen sizes have grown, which is indicative of the pace of advancement in mobile technology. But does the world really need thinner and thinner smartphones? That‘s up to us, the consumers. What do you think?
Source: Engadget China
