Early iPhone 0355 Prototype Had Curved Glass on Front and Back

Samsung and Apple are battling it out in a heated trial right now and, thanks to the necessities of revealing evidence, we’ve been treated to a juicy timeline of Apple’s early iPad and iPhone designs. Now, we get to take a look at yet another prototype leak, one that we haven’t seen yet, which reveals that Apple once toyed with the idea of launching an iPhone with a curved glass display. Like the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, the designs show a device with glass panels on both sides.

The top of the phone, which appears to be made out of metal, looks a lot like the rounded edges on Samsung Focus Windows Phone. Yes, I went there.

The leak was published first by Network World, which also published a conversation between Apple’s former indsutrial designer Douglas Satzger and Samsung’s legal team.

“I think you said, there was a strong interest within the group in doing a smartphone design that had shaped glass?” Samsung’s lawyer asked Satzger.

“Yes,” Satzger responded.

“And the particular prototype model you have in front of you, the 0355 model, has shaped glass on the front and the back?” Samsung’s legal team asked.

“That was the intent,” Satzger replied.

For the record, Samsung actually did launch a smartphone with a contoured glass display: The Galaxy Nexus.