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iPhone 5 part surfaces, shows larger display and thinner bezel?

A purported image of an iPhone 5 part has appeared on a Chinese reseller of Apple parts’ website. Specifically, this part may be the digitizer panel for the fifth generation iPhone’s touch screen. The part’s design appears to be similar to that of the one found on the current iPhone 4, and past iPhone models, but the screen cutout of the panel appears to be much larger. No measurements for this cutout have been posted, but the cutout could be for a four-inch display, and this matches up with reports from Apple’s production lines in Asia.

Apple is said to be working on a “completely re-designed” iPhone for debut in Summer 2011 with a four-inch display to take on the larger screens found on some of the latest smartphones running Google’s Android operating system. Apple’s next generation iPhone is said to cost less and might feature a new integrated SIM card to be easily configurable on any supported carrier. The iPhone 5 may also carry an upgraded A4 processor, already dubbed the A5 chip, in addition to a new Gobi WWAN chip already found in the Verizon iPhone, designed to work on both CDMA and GSM networks.

The purported iPhone digitizer (above) also appears to have a thinner bezel on all sides: right, left, top, and bottom. This matches up well with a well-sourced report claiming that the next smartphone from Apple will feature an edge-to-edge display. This would allow Apple to increase the display’s size, while keeping the actual device’s size the same or even smaller. Information about this rumored display’s resolution is yet to surface, but one concept pegs the rumored 4 inch display to stay “Retina” with the new bottom portion being a stationary control switch bar for iOS multitasking.

We have a lovely mock up below:

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