French site Nowhereelse has posted what it claims are more leaked photos from China of casings for the long-rumored plastic iPhone.
We’re not entirely convinced these are the real deal and not just clones made based off of plastic iPhone rumors stretching back months. While the colors are broadly consistent with those of the iPod touch/nano, and we’d expect to see differences between metal and plastic, those colors look rather garish even allowing for the poor lighting. Comparison after the break …
Here’s the iPod Touch:
And here’s a direct comparison:
Now, granted a plastic shell is never going to look as pretty as an aluminum one, but comparing it to the iPhone 3G, the leaked shells just look a little cheap:
Of course, the plastic iPhone is supposed to be cheap. But while there has been some exceedingly unlikely talk of a price as low as $99, the consensus view seems to be that it will be a mid-range handset with a likely price in the $300 to $350 range – perhaps even $400. At that level, and bearing the Apple logo, you can’t launch something that looks or feels cheap.
We don’t know for sure that the photo is fake, but given how long the plastic phone rumors have been around, there has been plenty of time for Chinese manufacturers to work on clones.
