Over the past few weeks, there have been lots of buzz around Apple's next generation iPhone, unofficially labeled as the iPhone 5, which is expected to be released later this year.

What has added even more spice to the already hot rumor-mill is the purported iPhone 5 metal backplate that was leaked recently. It was followed by an abundance of claims from insider sources that the part was indeed real.

Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac cited sources in position to know as saying that the leaked aluminum-clad backplate pretty well matched the iPhones being tested internally.

Gurman explained: The structure of the shells does match up with what is being tested internally. Namely, the redesigned bottom portion of the iPhone with the moved headphone jack and smaller dock connector are present on at least one of the longer iPhones that Apple is testing internally.

The claimed iPhone 5 leaked parts did point to a largely familiar form factor, but the most important facet to note was the longer display, increasing the ever-present 3.5-inch measurement to the 4-inch mark, also altering the aspect ratio.

Given that many rival Android smartphones, especially the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note devices, sport larger display, which is gradually gaining traction, Apple is highly expected to follow the standard set by Android phone manufacturers with its upcoming iPhone iteration.

So how would Apple's next iPhone look like if the aforementioned leaks materialize this fall? Bryce Haymond of Blackpool Creative has created a set of high resolution 3D renderings of the iPhone 5, piecing together fragments of photos and videos of the highly anticipated device that have been circulating the web over the past few weeks.

Haymond wrote:

There's been quite a bit of hype recently in the Apple universe over the imminent announcement of a new iPhone, or rather the new iPhone (aka iPhone 5). Many of the biggest media outlets have already published photos and videos of 'leaked' parts that are supposedly from the iPhone 5 as it makes its way into the manufacturing phase at Apple's suppliers. I thought it would be fun to piece together these fragments to see what the iPhone 5 might look like when Apple makes the big announcement.

Haymond's renderings fall well in line with the leaked components, suggesting that an iPhone with an extended 4-inch display, a repositioned FaceTime camera and a large metal band across its back cover is on its way.

Haymond said that he made the renderings in CAD, the same type of software that was used to design the actual phone. While looking closely at the leaked photos of the parts, Haymond said he noticed a few things that he had not seen mentioned elsewhere:

  • The mute switch and volume buttons all appear lower on the left side of the phone than previous models.
  • The back side of the phone looks to be flush with the aluminum bezel. The iPhone 4/4S has back panels (and front panels) that are extruded somewhat from the bezel. This change is probably because of the aluminum unibody design, which made it simpler to go from the side, to chamfer, to back. The front panel still appears extruded, but perhaps slightly less than older models. This should all equate to a thinner overall phone.
  • The camera and flash (and new back mic hole?) appear to be higher on the phone, closer to the top than to the side, ostensibly to provide room for the unibody design of the back panel. Prior models had the camera positioned equidistant from the edges.
  • The speaker and mic grills on the bottom of the phone have changed to be a perforated circle pattern, bringing the iPhone into the same design family as the iPad with its similar speaker.
  • In fact, all of these unibody details and changes unify the iPhone and the iPad into the same design language. Maybe, the next black iPad will have a black anodized aluminum unibody back panel? It's interesting to note that even the bezel on the leaks appears to be dark gray/black, only on the black model. The white model keeps the bezel the standard silver color.

As per the rumors go, the features that are most likely to be incorporated in the upcoming iPhone model include a 4-inch Retina display, an A5X Variant chip, 1GB RAM, iOS 6, 4G LTE technology, Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, improved Siri, liquidmetal casing, an 8 megapixel (or even higher) rear camera, a 2 megapixel front-facing camera for video chatting and a much-improved battery life.

Start the slideshow to drool over the iPhone 5 renderings, created by Haymond.

Will you be happy if these renderings hold true in the final design of the next iPhone? Let us know in the comment section below.

Update: WWDC 2012 Keynote Live: Where To Get Live Blog Coverage of Apple's Annual Worldwide Developers Conference

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