First photos of a running iPhone 4s?

Early Monday Eastern time, phoneArena.com uncovered an image on Chinese microblogging site Weibo that appeared to show a new iPhone logic board connected to the back of a white iPhone 4-like front panel. In it, an A5 processor, LCD display, battery and several flex cables are clearly visible.

Then at around noon ET on Mon, the cat got let out of the proverbial bag and another -- even more revealing -- photo surfaced on MacPost of the other side of a disassembled device bearing a striking resemblance to iPhone 4. In the new photos, the purported iPhone 4S is even powered on and displays the familiar iTunes activation screen. (I guess that they weren't using iOS 5 on this particular model.)

And finally Pandaxtech posted an even-higher resolution photo of the new device's A5 processor, main board and battery.

While the images are far from confirmed -- and likely never will be -- these photos are starting to look like the real deal. I'm guessing that the photos are leaking from testing engineers and high level channel partners. It can only mean that a launch is imminent.

Too bad it's only the iPhone 4s, though. And in white no less. Where are my pics of the iPhone 5 already?

Kudos to MacRumors, as usual, for the finds. Nice work fellas.