A little more than a month after we got a peek at what may be the rear of the iPhone 6s, images that reportedly show the front panel of the device have surfaced.
Images from Macfixit purportedly show the backside of the display panel of an iPhone 6s. The photos show a panel that looks largely similar to the iPhone 6’s save for a small rectangular cutout in the metal plate that separates the iPhone’s display from the rest of the phone’s internals. The thought is that the purpose of this cutout could be for the Taptic Engine, which would enable Force Touch on the new iPhone, a feature that’s already rumored.
One other detail in these leaked images that’s worth pointing out is a “Pass” stamp that shows a date of July 29. That suggests that the display panel was manufactured just a few days ago.
Force Touch debuted on the Apple Watch earlier this year, and Apple recently added it to the trackpad of its new MacBook and MacBook Pro models as well. The feature gives users another way to navigate through the device’s UI that’s separate from just tapping the screen by pushing in on it. For example, Apple’s Music app for the Apple Watch lets you tap on categories like Albums and Artists, but Force Touch opens up another menu that offers Source and Now Playing buttons.
There are a couple of reasons why I could see Apple bringing Force Touch to the iPhone 6s. First of all, it’s already on the Apple Watch and MacBook models, and bringing it to the iPhone too could help give a unified experience to the device. Also, the iOS 9 version of Apple’s Notes app will let you use your finger to sketch on the screen, and Force Touch could expand on that feature by allowing the device to sense the pressure that you want to draw with.
A second iPhone 6s leak comes to us in the form of a video that claims to show 3D case maker design renders of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. According to the video, the iPhone 6 will come in at 7.1mm thick, a hair thicker than the 6.9mm iPhone 6, while the iPhone 6s Plus will grow 0.2mm to be 7.3mm thick. Most of the iPhone 6s hardware is expected to be similar to the iPhone 6, which is what most of us expect, though it’s suggested that Apple could eliminate the protruding camera found on the iPhone 6.
