The first 'leaked' pictures of the iPhone 7 (and it's gold...)

We'll not delay you with any further teasing: the following image is apparently a new rose gold iPhone 7 prototype, spotted in the wild.

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These woefully-lit images cropped up on Chinese microblogging site Weibo - a Twitter-like dumping ground of posts, images and links - before the wider world of Apple leak enthusiasts started sticking their own watermarks on them.

Sure, there's no way to verify the credibility of the images, but they do bare a striking resemblance to a series of iPhone 7 technical renderings that appeared online earlier this month.

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The previous design leaks...

Either what we're looking at is one of the first iPhone 7 prototypes to make it off a Chinese production line and under the camera of a keen leaker - or, someone had a good look at the suggested schematics and decided they could make their own using a current iPhone 6S and some gold paint.

Will we ever find out? No, no we will not. But it's yet another trickle in what's becoming a general torrent of leaks surrounding Apple's iPhone 7 launch. Who knows, maybe they're trying their hardest to put us off the scent when they reveal their new iPhone in September - ABOARD THE iHOVERBOARD!

Yeah, probably not.

David Cornish, based in London, was the former tech editor for Shortlist, and is currently a Content Manager at The Gregory Centre for Church Multiplication (CCX).