Identifying iPhone models

 

There are now five different kinds of iPhones on the market, and through the generations, the design has remained consistent, which can make it confusing when coming to the site to sell your iPhone. We're here to help you identify your iPhone model, making it easier to get an accurate quote when selling it to BuyMyTronics.com.

Apple came out with the iPhone in 2007, and has been releasing steady, yearly updates ever since. The first iPhone is called the iPhone 2G, or Apple iPhone Original. It's easily spotted when you look at the back of your iPhone. If it has silver metal with a black bottom part, you have an iPhone Original. Here's a picture to further illustrate:

The next generation of iphone came out 2008, and included a 3G chip that the first iPhone didn't have before. They therefore called it the iPhone 3G. The back of the iPhone 3G is completely plastic and comes in either black or white, and can be denoted by the matte writing on the back. The writing on the lower back, which also tells you your storage capacity, is written faded grey text. This text is important to note because we'll be using it to figure out the next iPhone very soon. Here's another picture to illustrate:

 

In 2009, Apple ushered in the iPhone 3GS. It's basically an iPhone 3G, but speedier (which is why they threw the "S" on the end of it). The only way to tell is by looking at the back of the phone (again). It looks exactly like the iPhone 3G, but the writing on the lower part is a mirror finish, instead of a matte grey finish like the 3G. Here's a picture to demonstrate:

See how shiny it is compared to the dullness of the iPhone 3G?  Here's a picture comparing the two of them, side by side:

 

The iPhone 4 came out in June 2010 and introduced a plethora of hardware features such as a front facing camera, a flash for the back facing one (also bumped up to 5mp instead of just 3 mp) and an innovative antenna design. It is drastically different than all previous iPhones. It's most distinguishing features are its flat front and back, which are not rounded like the previous generations, and a metal band that wraps around all sides. It also has a camera on the front side, something that no previous iPhone had. Here's a picture to further illustrate:

Notice the camera on the front, the glass back, the flash (something else that's entirely new), and the metal ring or border that's on all the sides. All these things distinguish it as an iPhone 4.

 Along with the 4 iPhones already established, a new iPhone has been added: The iPhone 4 for Verizon.  This looks almost exactly the same as the iPhone 4 for AT&T, but with a few minor changes.

On the right side of the iPhone 4 you can see the outline of the SIM tray, which is the easiest way to identify the iPhone 4's carrier; if there is no sim tray on the right side, it is a Verizon iPhone.  Please see picture below:

On the left side there is another difference, and that is that the button placement, and this means that not all cases may fit your particular iPhone. Here is a picture below demonstrating the difference:

If you're curious as to whether the iPhone 4 that you're looking at is for Verizon, or AT&T, you will no longer be in doubt!

Apple released the iPhone 4S in October 2011, and on three different mobile service carriers. The iPhone 4S looks identical to the iPhone 4, with exception of the model number. Seen on the picture below, the model number starts with an "A" and has 4 digits behind it. The iPhone 4S is A1387, and can be located in this area:

If the glass back of your iPhone says "A1387," you have an iPhone 4S. Apple's simplistic design is world renown and is lovely to look at and interact with, but this presents some problems because text showcasing the storage size and carrier are omitted from the back. In order to find these two things easily just touch the following: Settings > General > About. From here just look under "Carrier" for the carrier and "Capacity" for the capacity. Please note if you have a 16gb iPhone 4S, it'll likely say less, like 13.6gb because some of the space is taken up for the operating system and native apps. When this occurs, just round up to the nearest 16gb, 32gb, or 64gb increment.

 

Apple released the iPhone 5 last month to much acclaim and fan fare!  If you're looking to sell yours, you may want to know how to identify if it's indeed the correct iPhone that you have.  This iPhone looks a lot like the iPhone 4S, except it's longer.  It boasts a 6th row of icons now on its 4" screen (up from the previous 3.5").  The other readily identifying feature of this phone is that the back is aluminum, which hasn't been seen since the first generation iPhone.  In order to find the capacity, go into "settings," and then tap "about."

In the United States and most of the world, two versions of the iPhone 5 were released: a GSM model and a GSM/CDMA model. Both versions come in 16, 32, and 64GB versions.

To tell if you’ve got a GSM model or GSM/CDMA model, just take a peek at the model number found on the back of your phone. If it reads “A1428” you’ve got yourself a GSM iPhone 5. If you see a model number of “A1429” you have the GSM/CDMA model.