More than anything, most people just want to know when the iPhone 5 is actually hitting stores. And based on our last post, it appears that date is most likely September 23, 2012, with an official announcement coming the week before that.  Next to the release date, the next most desired piece of information from iPhone 5 consumers is what the device will look like. We’ve been treated to many purported leaked images, including some that we debuted back in February. However, the images that were leaked today may be an even more realistic representation of the iPhone 5 than any of the previously shown images on iPhone5Latest.com.

As has been the case with previous Apple product image leaks–such as the iPhone 4S–our latest iPhone 5 image leak come courtesy of a manufacturer. The manufacturer in this case is a Chinese case manufacturer who has decided to use a prototype iPhone (potentially an iPhone 5) in images for their upcoming line of iPhone cases. The case shown in the picture below appears to be a white hardshell case that “snaps on” to the iPhone 5. It’s not indicated if the case will come in other styles or color varieties–although obviously that piece of information isn’t as important as the iPhone 5 in the case.

Based on the picture above, it’s clear that this iPhone is different in a few ways. For one, you’ve got a longer, wider screen. We’re not sure how big the iPhone 5 display will be, though we’ve heard it will probably be somewhere between 4-4.5 inches. The case and iPhone 5 shown seems to prove what these sources have been saying in recent weeks about the display size.

Secondly–and perhaps most importantly, given our recent talk of smaller dock sizes–the iPhone 5 in this image has a much smaller dock connector. Again, it’s not 100% clear from the picture just how much smaller the dock connector is compared to the iPhone 4S dock connector–but it looks to be somewhere in the range of 19-21 pins. If Apple does indeed go ahead with the smaller dock connector, this will render the iPhone 5 incompatible with the older style cables and accessories. That’s obviously not good news for iPhone owners who want to use their current accessories on the iPhone 5.

Lastly the iPhone 5 in this picture is much different from older iPhones in that it appears Apple has decided to move the headphone jack from the top left of the iPhone to the bottom left of the iPhone 5. For iPod Touch owners, this is quite familiar as that’s where the headphone jack on the iPod Touch sits. Personally, we’re not a fan of the move as we think the headphone jack works best on top–but Apple obviously must have something that tells them this is a good idea. We’ll see if it actually happens, though.

So, readers, what do you think of the picture? Are you a fan of the smaller dock connector and moved headphone jack?

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