The white edition of the iPhone 4 finally arrived in stores on Thursday, and users of the ivory model have discovered something strange about the handset -- it’s ever-so-slightly thicker than its black sibling, and no one seems to know why.
Engadget is reporting that the arrival of the white iPhone 4 on Thursday has brought with it a mystery -- the new handset is just a hair thicker than the existing black model. According to TiPb, the white iPhone 4 measures 9.5mm while the original black version comes in at 9.3mm deep -- a minor difference, to be sure, but one that Apple fails to note on their product website.
"Actual size and weight vary by configuration and manufacturing process,” Apple notes in the extremely tiny print on the iPhone 4 product page. Fair enough, but is the slight difference enough to cause trouble for those of us using cases?
“We’ve confirmed ourselves, that an Incase slider that fits a black iPhone 4 just fine has to be forced into place on the new white model,” Engadget reports. The image above also shows the 0.2mm difference, using a piece of lead from a mechanical pencil to demonstrate the gap.
While no one knows for sure why the white iPhone 4 is thicker, Engadget posits a few theories, at least: “Phil Schiller mentioned that his team needed to add extra UV protection and other tweaks, in an attempt to reduce the ‘unexpected interactions’ between the cover's whiteness and the internal components. As such, Apple apparently needed to sacrifice some slimness for a better functioning white phone.”
Makes sense to us. Any early adopters of the white iPhone 4 having problems with cases, docks or other accessories? Chime in on the comments.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
(Image courtesy of Engadget)
