This is not the iPhone 5. It's claimed to be an iPhone 5 clone made by a factory in Shenzhen, China, right where the actual iPhone 5 is being produced. Could this really be what the iPhone 5 looks like?
Check out the pictures, because something tells me it could be very close to the real thing.
It certainly matches the plastic cases and the rumors about Apple using rounded glass for the screen and the back. It also matches the alleged spy shot published last week.
From above, it reminds me a bit of the first iPhone. Overall, it feels like a polished merge between the first generation iPhone and the iPhone 4, with the iPhone 3G's smoothed curves factored in as well. Its simplicity is very Apple, and to me it feels like it could be a real Apple design.
The alleged clone is only 7mm thick. That's only 0.275 inches! Obviously, it doesn't have the same guts as the real thing will have, but I certainly expect a thinner iPhone 5.
Why this could be it
In China, many products are often cloned before they even reach the market—based either on digital blueprints or models sneaked out by workers when the products are already in production. That's the reason you see cases and cloned replacement parts of the iPhone or iPad models before they even get released.
Given that the iPhone 5 is probably being churned out of the factories as we speak—either in limited production runs or ramping up—I wouldn't be surprised if someone got a prototype and sold it to some enterprising pirate company.
In any case, it seems way too polished not to be a clone of the actual iPhone 5. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if the real thing looks exactly like this. [Giz-China]
p.s. In fact, I'm so sure that I just made this bet.