Photo: Apple’s new cheaper multi-colored iPhone surfaces, allegedly

Case manufacturer Tactus has published a photo that is allegedly Apple’s new budget iPhone, a plastic-backed larger-screen iPhone that will reportedly retail for about $300.

The phone is both taller and wider than Apple’s older iPhone 4, at 120mm high and 65mm wide, or 4.7″ high by 2.55″ wide. That’s both shorter and wider than Apple’s current iPhone 5, which is 4.87 inches high, and 2.31 inches wide. For comparison, the current Android smartphone sales leader, the Samsung Galaxy S III, is 5.38″ by 2.78″, and the next-generation Samsung S IV is just a shade larger at 5.51″ by 2.82″.

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A cheaper iPhone has long been rumored by the analysts, even though Apple has done its best to dispel the rumors — or at least the “cheap” part of them. But Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White said a week ago that Apple’s cheaper phone would be announced in June and ship in July. White’s pricing analysis suggests the budget iPhone will sell for between $350 and $400.

The new rumor that Tactus has published confirms the plastic shell but shows a flat back similar to the iPhone 4 and 5, not the curved plastic back of the older iPhone 3 and 3GS. It will allegedly have a five megapixel camera, and Apple’s A5 processor, similar to the iPad mini.

And, as rumored a number of weeks ago, it looks like the budget iPhone will ship in multiple colors: black, white, blue, red, and yellow. I’m sure Apple’s names for the colors will be a little more sophisticated.

Rumors are rumors, of course, so that legendary grain of salt is certainly indicated. But where there’s enough smoke, surely there’s fire as well.

And those who have long awaited an iPhone in something other than Apple’s iconic white or black could be very, very happy.

Photo credit: Tactus