Being the pedigreed gadget geeks that we are, most of us here at TechCrunch are always up for a good gadget tear-down. We’ve seen everything from phones, to tablets, to friggin’ FBI tracking devices get splayed apart, and we loved every second of it.

So when a tear-down gives a glimpse inside of what very much looks to be the iPhone 5? Yes, please.

Leaked on Chinese microblogging site Weibo (if Twitter and Facebook had a baby that only spoke Chinese, that’d be Weibo), this little glimpse into what’s being claimed as the innards of an iPhone 5 show at least 3 things of note:

• A5 processor (Same CPU used in the iPad 2)
• A slightly bigger/stronger battery (4.2v, 1430 mAh versus 3.7v , 1420 mAh)
• The LCD backpanel (the blue bit just barely visible on the left side) definitely appears to be going from edge to edge, as rumors have long suggested the display would do.

If you’re having a hard time telling heads from tails in the picture, note that the components on the right would actually flip over (see the attached cable) and rest on top of that visible on the left. Note that some components appear to be missing — most notably, there’s no antenna, nor any body/caging to hold it all in place.

What do you think? Is this one the real deal, or just an inside look at a rather detailed clone?

Crunchbase

• APPLE

Company: Apple

Website: apple.com

Launch Date: April 1, 1976

IPO: February 26, 1980, NASDAQ:AAPL

Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple, Inc. in January 2007. Among the key offerings from Apple’s product line are: Pro line laptops (MacBook Pro) and desktops (Mac Pro), consumer line laptops (MacBook) and desktops (iMac), servers (Xserve), Apple TV, the Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server operating systems, the iPod (offered with...

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