Photos of the engineering sample of the iPhone 5s in a special black color published
Today, 9to5Mac spoke and showed a prototype iPhone 5s in classic black colour, in which it was never released. A user under the nickname DongleBookPro told about the unique engineering sample on Twitter.
Outwardly, the device very much resembles the black iPhone 5. In the release version of the iPhone 5s, Apple abandoned the classic black colour, which was in the previous generation – it was replaced by the beloved “Space grey”.
The user who received the engineering sample says that the company could use this colour in the prototype to disguise the iPhone 5s from the eyes of attentive journalists during the development and testing phase. The prototype itself was made in December 2012 – three months after the presentation of the iPhone 5 and exactly 9 months before the official announcement of the iPhone 5s on September 10, 2013. The device runs on special Switchboard software, which is used to test devices by employees inside Apple.
One of the reasons the company ditched black in favour of Space Gray is believed to be due to paint retention issues. On some iPhone 5s, black paint literally peeled off in patches – especially on the side edges. In the iPhone 5s and subsequent generations of Apple smartphones, this problem no longer occurred. Exception: iPhone 12 and iPhone 7, their users still faced a similar marriage.
