Edible Apple

The white iPhone 4 is no longer on the endangered species list and can be found roaming around your local Apple retail store. The recent arrival of the white iPhone 4 brings to an end an uncharacerstic launch delay that persisted for about 10 months. While Apple hasn’t explicitly detailed why the albino iPhone, so to speak, was delayed, there are strong rumors suggesting that the white paint let too much light and affected the device’s internals, namely the iPhone 4 camera, and subsequently resulted in washed out photos.

So with the white iPhone 4 now a reality, it didn’t take long for folks to pry it open and examine the device for any differences between this model and the old school black iPhone 4. In that vein ,the Japanese language Mac site Macotakra directs us to a few tweets from @kazunie who relays some of the following information.

First, the camera sensor on the white iPhone 4 is slightly different from the black model. It remains unknown, however, whether the camera shift was done to account for the aforementioned photo problems or if other factors drove Apple’s decision.

Second, Apple also appears to have made changes to the proximity sensors, though no further details were forthcoming.

Third, and obviously less important, are all the circulating reports suggesting that the white iPhone 4 is slightly thicker than its black bretheren. In the wake of those reports, Apple senior VP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller tweeted that the reports weren’t to be believed.

“It is not thicker,” Schiller tweeted, “don’t believe all the junk that you read.”

But didn’t people measure it? Don’t photos show that the white iPhone 4 is objectively thicker?

Well, I suppose it depends who or what you want to believe.

Consumer Reports observed the thickness of each device with caliper measurements and found that the devices were of equal thickness.

But a few days earlier, TiPB also measured the white iPhone 4 and found it to be 0.2mm thicker than the black model.