Hasta La Gadget!

The kids at Taoviet have really outdone themselves. From the looks of these images, the Vietnamese site has nabbed an honest to goodness 4th generation iPhone — a 16GB model to be exact. It’s clearly pre-production judging by the XXX placeholders on the backside stamp and likely lacks a bootable OS, just a “Bonfire” test routine. Nevertheless, it looks authentic enough that we expect Apple’s henchmen to be busting down the guy’s door before he pries it open to reveal Apple’s chipset of choice. A few more pics in the gallery.

Update: We’ve spotted a difference from this model and the unit that Gizmodo bought. Notably, the pair of screws at the bottom of the device are gone. The cleaner design could indicate a newer prototype (closer to the actual retail model) though both the iPhone 3G and 3GS went to market with a similar pair of screws. Comparison shot after the break.

Update 2: Oops, too late Apple, teardown pics added showing an Apple branded processor. Note the black “N90” text on the white sticker — that’s the rumored internal codename for Apple’s next generation GSM iPhone. Yeah, that looks like the A4 processor to us.

Update 3: Video! Unfortunately, this sucker’s never going to boot to the OS. And if the translation in our comments is correct then the unit was purchased for US$4,000.