A guy walks into a bar, but instead of the customary lame joke or flat beer, this guy actually finds the next, unreleased generation of the iPhone, according to Gizmodo.

The phone, apparently retrieved from a bar in Redwood City, California was camouflaged to look like a regular 3GS phone. Since reports later surfaced that Apple was indeed missing an experimental iPhone 4 from its offices, Gizmodo is now convinced that this is the missing prototype.

Tinkering around with the prototype, Gizmodo found a lot of new and improved features. The happy investigators report that the prototype not only sports a front-facing camera for video chats, but also boasts an improved regular back camera with a flash and larger lens. The display is reported to be better, and the unit pops out a Micro-SIM instead of a standard SIM card. Gizmodo adds that there are split buttons for volume, and notes that the power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic in color.

Sadly, they didn’t get a chance to suss the operating system out, as Apple remotely disconnected the phone.

So, what else can you expect from the new iPhone? Gizmodo describes:

The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound
• An aluminum border going completely around the outside
• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)
• Everything is more squared off
• 3 grams heavier
• 16% Larger battery
• Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery

Gizmodo says it is confident that the lost and found phone is the 2010 model of the new iPhone, as the device behaves like an iPhone when connected to a computer, but has obvious hardware differences from existing iPhones. What’s more, when the tinkerers disassembled the phone, they found “multiple components that were clearly labeled APPLE.” And they believe this to be the 2010 model because they say it’s too early for Apple to be testing out its 2011 model in such a finished form.

With its sleek looks, flash, better back camera, and another microphone for superior voice clarity, Gizmodo’s final verdict was that the upgraded phone is a winner.

People who bought the 3G two years ago and are now in the perfect position to upgrade and get a dramatically different, and better, phone.

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