iPhone
New evidence that Apple is creating a rear fingerprint sensor for the upcoming iPhone 8 has surfaced online. Reuters/Stephen Lam

A new iPhone 8 leak has surfaced online. This time the leaked schematic of Apple’s next-generation flagship smartphone appears to confirm what many fans were dreading to happen: Tim Cook’s team giving up on developing a display-embedded fingerprint sensor and following what Samsung did to the Galaxy S8.

This Wednesday, leaker Sonny Dickson shared on Twitter a photo of what appears to be a diagram of the iPhone 8’s back panel. The leaked schematic shows an all-aluminum back panel that has holes for the rumored vertical dual-camera module and the Apple logo. Surprisingly, there is also a circular hole underneath the logo.

The circular hole below the logo quickly attracted a lot of attention online. For one, this suggests that Apple could have decided to ditch the display-embedded fingerprint reader it was reported to be working on for the almost bezel-less model. There is also a tiny circular hole found under the vertical camera module in the illustration, but it wasn’t clear what this is for.

READ: iPhone 8 has iPhone 4-like enclosure

Since the base of the iPhone 8 is also shown in the schematic, some are claiming that the handset could debut with USB-C port instead of the Lightning connector. Back in February, Wall Street Journal reported that Apple will likely ditch the Lightning connector for the 24-pin, fully reversible plug USB connector.

Another thing that’s getting a lot of attention online is the fact that the leaked diagram has different measurements for the iPhone 8. IBTimes previously learned from a different leak that the Cupertino giant could be preparing a 137.54 mm tall and 67.54 mm wide flagship phone. However, this new illustration claims the upcoming iPhone actually measures 149.501 mm tall and 72.497 mm wide. Should this be the official case of the highly anticipated device, it would be bigger than the iPhone 7 but smaller than the iPhone 7 Plus.

MacRumors pointed out that this new leak could just be detailing one of the prototypes Apple is currently testing. The tech giant is said to be trying out multiple prototypes as of late, and this one corroborates what Bloomberg is saying that Tim Cook’s company could be considering a simpler design that has an aluminum back.