9to5mac has posted a photo from Chinese reseller of Apple parts iDealsChina showing a a purported digitizer panel for the next-generation iPhone, dubbed iPhone 5. The front panel shows a bigger display with an “edge-to-edge” screen that reduces the size of the bezels, especially at the sides. iDealsChina writes:

China’s 1st iPhone 5 photo has surfaced! From this photo it seems that the screen size will be larger than iPhone 4. There has been a lot of specualtion about a larger screen and maybe this will be one of the upgrades we will see when iPhone 5 is released this summer.

We heard that more photos of parts for iPhone 5 may be available soon. The part we would like to see is the back of iPhone 5 to verify if the rumored tapered back is true.

Several readers have pointed out that the image could be easily modified in Photoshop, but it also appears to back up the rumors surfaced in the past weeks about a new iPhone with a 4-inch screen “edge-to-edge” buit to face the competition of Android handsets sporting bigger and larger displays. In spite of the problems with a new iPhone resolution happening this year, we heard a few months ago that the iPhone 5 would be a “complete redesign” with major new features, like NFC support. It’s not clear from the photo whether or not Apple could keep the iPhone form factor at the same size and increase the size of the display at the same time.