The upcoming iPhone 6s just leaked in an odd assembly, with its logic board and display panel combined with iPhone 6 components.
The resulting mashup phone is not fully functional because the parts are mismatched, so when the phone is turned on a gear icon is the only thing that appears.
The rear shell and battery of this mashup phone come from the iPhone 6, and they only suffice to somewhat boot the phone to show that gear icon. This combination of parts from the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6, however, doesn't show any other functionality for now.
The folks over at Macrumors have posted a video showing the device booting to the gear screen, while opening it up shows the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6 internal parts connected within the rear shell.
The next-generation iPhone is also rumored to rock Apple's new Force Touch technology, which activated various controls depending on how hard one presses on the display. The mashup phone featured in this video doesn't actually show the Force Touch functionality, but it does reveal some differences compared to the existing iPhone 6. The shielding on the rear of the display, for instance, ditches the screws in favor of adhesive, which could hint at Force Touch support.
In addition to this intriguing video, Macrumors also has some interesting images of a purported logic board for the iPhone 6s, revealing some tidbits of information about the main components of the device. Based on this photos, the iPhone 6s seems to boast enhanced radio hardware, combining the Qualcomm MDM9635M LTE baseband modem with the WTR3925 radio frequency transceiver chip for faster 4G LTE speeds over networks that support it.
Basically, the iPhone 6s combines the features of two chips into one, which should translate to greater power efficiency and superior performance, while also requiring less logic board real estate.
The newly-leaked images also offer a glimpse of the much-rumored Apple A9 processor, albeit this unit has no stamp on it. It might be a pre-production unit, which would explain why the A9 stamp is missing. At the same time, this unit doesn't show other markings either, which makes it hard to determine just how much RAM the upcoming iPhone 6s will pack.
Nevertheless, the leak shows the purported Apple A9 is larger than the A8 chip powering the iPhone 6. It remains unclear for now just why the new chip is larger, but one theory is that Apple packed some additional functionality into the main chip, likely aiming to save overall space while also boosting efficiency.
It's all unconfirmed at this point, but the next-generation iPhone should make its debut soon enough. Apple is expected to take the wraps off its new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus on or around Sept. 9, which means that it will all become clear in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, check out Macrumors video below, but take all leaks with a grain of salt.
