Apple has certainly stepped out of its comfort zone with this one, and a good that is too. It hasspruced up the iPhone 5 and given it a new look and feel, along with a new name. The tech experts over at KYM spent some time with Apple’s colourful new offering and found that not only does the iPhone 5C look good, it gives the competition a run for its money on the functionality front too.
- Design and Build
The iPhone 5C is a good looking phone with its colourful casings and its even brighter add-on cases. Its new plastic chassis does add a bit of bulk to the handset, but it flows well in the scheme of Apple’s redesign. The iPhone 5C is 9mm thick and weighs 132g, much more than its predecessor, but it feels very robust and sturdy in the hand.
The phone is built around a steel frame that, besides lending it stability, doubles over as a wideband antenna. The frame is laser-welded to the polycarbonate outer casing of the handset for a ‘precise fit’. The plastic casing itself aids grip and adds durability and a feeling of solidity to the phone.
The location of keys and buttons on the iPhone 5C are familiar and easy to work with, since primarily they are unchanged from the iPhone 5.
- Display
Apple has also kept the display unchanged on the iPhone 5C as well, giving it a 4-inch IPS LCD panel with a resolution of 640 x 1136 pixels and a pixel density of 326ppi. The Retina Display offers some great colour reproduction, viewing angles and brightness levels.
However, it is not a 1080p display. And though its size certainly appeals to those who prefer smaller handsets, it has been disappointing to many users who were hoping to see a larger screen on an iPhone. Of course, the iPhone 5C is ideal for one hand use, but for watching videos and surfing the web, the bigger the screen, the better.
- Hardware and Performance
The iPhone 5C’s inners are almost identical to the ones on the iPhone 5. It runs on Apple’s A6 processor that packs in two 32-bit ARM CPU cores based on Apple's custom ‘Swift’ architecture. It sports 1 GB of DDR2 RAM and ships in variants of 16 and 32 GB of storage. Unlike its predecessor however, it also comes with Qualcomm’s WTR1605L transceiver which allows for ‘global’ LTE support.
Apple’s latest offering is quick and responsive and handles multitasking, games, web browsing etc smoothly, without any lags.
- Connectivity
The iPhone 5C comes with a host of connectivity options including Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, AirPlay, AirDrop, 2G, 3G (DC-HSPA and HSPA+) and 4G LTE. The handset has no problem running on any network with ease.
- Operating System
Apple has finally given its operating system a much needed change over in iOS 7. The platform is sleek, clean and functional. Aspects like Safari, AirDrop, Multitasking, Camera and Control Center really stand out on the new build and are what make the iPhone 5C such an interesting device.
The redesigned iOS 7 operating system is bolder and more colourful than the platform that came before it. It is, at the same time, slimmer and neater as well. We only wish it had come to Apple’s ecosystem earlier.
Safari’s full-screen browsing and new tab view is convenient and sharing content to social networks, email, or AirDrop is just a tap away. The browser is fast as well. Air Drop and Air Play work seamlessly too. Apple has really spruced up its act with Maps as well and the app loads quickly and directions and locations are finally correct. Multitasking on iOS is finally a breeze too. The revamped Camera app is user friendly and allows users to unleash their creativity, making on the go photography fun and exciting.
Safari carries forward the look and feel of the overall operating system, packing in a cleaner and less cluttered feel. Even though Apple has not increased the display size of the iPhone 5C, the new Safari gives one a sense of roominess and browsing and sharing content has never felt easier on an iPhone. As expected, Safari is significantly faster than Chrome on iOS 7. It has been designed, after all, with Apple’s hardware in mind.
AirDrop is a very convenient feature of the iPhone 5C as well. It works seamlessly and makes it ever so easy to share photos, videos, contacts, web pages and even content from within an app with people nearby. The best part is that there is no setup required but all transfers are encrypted and secure.
Multitasking hasn’t always been the best and the easiest on an iPhone and this certainly seems to be changing with the new Multitasking feature on the iOS 7. Double tapping the Home key brings up a carousal-like card system of a user’s open applications and closing an app is simply a swipe away.
Even when we open and run a multitude of applications all at once there is no lag or glitch on the iPhone 5C’s multitasking functionality. This is, indeed, one of the most useful features of the new handset.
Apple’s camera app was previously pretty all right to use but was a bit sparse. With iOS 7, that is no longer the case. It boasts of a number of new features which make photography on the go more interesting than ever before.
Switching between modes including video, photo, square and panorama is conveniently done by swiping from the left to the right. One can activate the HDR mode and Flash On at the top of the phone with a single tap. As compared to before, these effects make a big difference to shots.
Siri is a marked improvement on its previous build too and though it’s still not Google Now, it does offer an improved functionality. It scans Twitter, Wikipedia and Bing to find answers to questions and can do stuff like change phone settings and return calls and texts.
- Camera
The iPhone 5C carries the same 8-megapixel camera set-up as the iPhone 5 and like its predecessor, offers detailed, sharp images with beautiful colour representation. The phone’s 1.2-megapixel FaceTime front facer has been improved slightly and now performs better in low light.
- Battery
The iPhone 5C has a slightly larger capacity battery of 1510 mAh than its predecessor and boasts of a slightly improved battery life. With average everyday tasks, the phone can last a full day of usage on a single charge.
Specifications
| Height | 124.4mm |
| Width | 59.2mm |
| Thickness | 9mm |
| Weight | 132g |
| Size | 4.0 inches |
| Resolution | 640 x 1136 pixels, pixel density 326ppi |
| Colours | 16M |
| Battery capacity | 1510 mAh |
| Standby | Up to 250 h (2G) / Up to 250 h (3G) |
| Talktime | Up to 10 h (3G) |
| OS | iOS 7 |
| Processor | A6 dual-core chipset |
| RAM | 1 GB |
| Camera resolution | 8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash – 1/3.2'' sensor size, 1.4 µm pixel size, simultaneous HD video and image recording, touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, HDR panorama, HDR photo |
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