Apple probably won’t release its next iPhone until this summer or fall, but that isn’t stopping tech blogs and news sites from speculating about what we could expect in the next Apple smartphone.
There are plenty of rumors on the Web about the next iPhone, which many believe will be called the iPhone 5S, but you should trust only a few of them. Most rumors online turn out to be nothing but wishful thinking, but a few do get it right sometimes.
Jeremy Horwitz, Editor-in-Chief of iLounge, has had a good track record lately for Apple product predictions. Today he wrote that according to “reliable sources,” he has gotten pictures of what purports to be a prototype of a “budget” iPhone 5 destined for the Chinese market. “Yes, it will be made substantially from plastic,” he writes. “No, it won’t just be a Retina- and Lightning-equipped refresh of the iPhone 3G or 3GS, Apple’s last plastic iPhones, nor will it look just like an all-plastic version of the iPhone 5. This new model is actually a cross between the iPhone 5, fifth-generation iPod touch, and… wait for it… the iPod classic. Yes, really. It will have a 4” screen, like the iPhone 5, a bottom like the latest iPod touch, and a shape that’s most similar to the iPod classic.”

According to Horwitz’s sources, the Chinese iPhone will be just slightly larger than the current iPhone 5, and like the fifth generation iPod touch, the screen will stick up just a bit from its enclosure. No word on the processor inside, but all of the components match up with the current iPhone 5 and fifth gen iPod Touch, including Gorilla Glass for the screen.