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Leaked video shows 'real' iPhone 5

This is either the best fake ever or it's real footage of the iPhone 5 booting up alongside an iPhone 4.

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida
2 min read
This leaked video would seem to prove the existence of a new dock connector and bottom-side headphone jack.
This leaked video would seem to prove the existence of a new dock connector and bottom-side headphone jack. Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET

It's now exactly one week until September 12, otherwise known as iPhone 5 launch day. Or perhaps it'll be "new iPhone" launch day.

Whatever the case, another Apple handset is coming -- and a new video suggests that all the mockups, leaked specs, and other rumors we've seen are right on target.

The video (obtained via Gizmodo) shows the new iPhone alongside an iPhone 4, with the handler turning them over so you can see them side by side, back to back, top to top, and so on.

OK, sure, but maybe this is just another mockup of assembled parts? Nope: 40 seconds in, the user boots both phones -- and it's about 34 seconds later that the new iPhone springs to life.

Well, sort of: it springs to an error message about it being "not registered as part of the iPhone Developer Program."

Even so, I don't think there can be any question that what we're seeing here is the new iPhone. After repeated viewings of the video, I'm left with these thoughts:

  • The new iPhone does indeed appear to be a hair thinner and narrower than the iPhone 4, and perhaps half an inch taller.
  • Maybe it's a trick of the lighting, but the new screen seems much blacker than the old one.
  • The iPhone 4 finished booting about 6 seconds after the new iPhone.
  • Both models showed a briefly animated Apple logo in the final second of the boot process. I'm assuming that's an iOS 6 thing, though I haven't found any reference to it elsewhere. If you're a developer, have you seen this before?
  • The headphone jack is on the bottom, alongside the new dock connector. Not sure how I feel about that, but my initial reaction is: "Oy."

Your thoughts? Think there's any chance this video could be a fake? Which are you sicker of right now: iPhone 5 coverage or election coverage?