The next iPhone from Apple will be a substantially improved beast than its predecessors, industry chatter suggests.
According to Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, the seventh-generation iPhone will come with Apple’s new A7 quad core chipset with 2GB of RAM, making it twice as the iPhone 5. It will also reportedly feature a fingerprint sensor for “improving security and usability”.
A scanner will set beneath the home button and will provide users, particularly enterprise users, with a more robust alternative to the archaic pass-codes for accessing their handsets.
To further safeguard against prying eyes, the iPhone 5S is also expected to incorporate an image recognition feature that was spotted in one of Apple’s patent filings from earlier this year. This will randomly show users a photo of a contact when attempting to unlock the handset, which they will have to correctly identify using voice or a list of options on the screen.
Kuo further claims that the iPhone 5S will be home to the same eight-megapixel camera as the iPhone 5, but with an improved sensor and a smart flash that will automatically switch between a white or yellow flash depending on the light conditions.
Meanwhile, Topeka Capital’s Brian White has thrown in his weight behind rumours that the iPhone 5S will come in a range of colours, namely pink, yellow and blue in addition to the standard white and silver, and black and slate.
White also backed reports that Apple is readying a low-cost version of the iPhone, the so-called iPhone mini, which he says "will have a curved back casing made of coloured plastic and will be thicker than the iPhone 5."
The handset is mooted to come in a plastic polycarbonate chassis and recycle parts from older models to keep costs down. However, White forecasts it could still cost as much as $400 (£260) to purchase upfront.
News of the next iPhone comes hot on the heels of Apple's official unveiling of the latest iOS 7 operating system earlier this week.
The revamped platform has been almost entirely stripped of the cutesy, skeuomorphic look of previous iterations in favour of a simpler, flatter and cleaner user interface, along with true multitasking, a new 'Control Centre' that now lets you access key settings options from any screen you're on and numerous improvements to Siri to just name a few.
iOS 7 will be officially released this autumn and is hotly tipped to coincide with the launch of the iPhone 5S in August or September.
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