Apple Announces iPhone 5C
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 10, 2013 1:05 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Apple
- Mobile
- iPhone 5C
Apple just announced the iPhone 5C. 4-inch Retina Display, A6 SoC, single piece polycarbonate back, 8MP iSight camera and new front facing FaceTime HD camera with 1.9µm pixels. Internally there's a steel frame that doubles as the antenna structure. The 5C is available in 5 colors (blue, white, pink, yellow, green).
The iPhone 5C takes the place of the iPhone 5. Previously Apple would've moved the iPhone 5 down the price chain and replaced it at the high end. The all-metal iPhone 5 likely wouldn't scale well to lower costs, so Apple moved to a polycarbonate design for the 5C. The result is a device with comparable specs to the iPhone 5, but starting at $99.
The iPhone 5C will be available starting on September 20th.
Check out our full coverage of Apple's Town Hall event in our live blog.
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kwrzesien - Tuesday, September 10, 2013 - link
Disappointed that the 32GB model isn't $149.Mumrik - Tuesday, September 10, 2013 - link
"The result is a device with comparable specs to the iPhone 5, but starting at $99."With contract. I know most people know it, but it really really should be pointed out that this thing absolutely doesn't cost $99.
lowlymarine - Tuesday, September 10, 2013 - link
You know, I was actually kind of interested in this when the rumors started spreading around a $300 off-contract price. Sure, it's still a touch too expensive for what you're getting, but not absurdly so, so it would make a nice device to maybe get into iOS development and keep as a spare phone in case something horrible befalls my Nexus 4. Then the rumors went up to $400 or so and my interest began to wane, but I decided to keep an eye on it anyway.And then they went and announced it at $550. I'm struggling to find the words to express how outrageous that is. Suffice it to say, you'd have to be absolutely insane to pay that much for a plastic iPhone 5 when the 16GB Nexus 4 is available for $249 with superior internals and arguably better build quality. And if LTE and a better camera mean enough to you for the difference to be worth it...I mean, the One GPe is only $50 more than this! Think about that for a second.
steven75 - Tuesday, September 10, 2013 - link
Superior internals to the 5/5C? It has a far worse camera, far worse GPU, no LTE, etc.lowlymarine - Tuesday, September 10, 2013 - link
While I have to grant you the camera and LTE (though I have to say that coming from a Lumia 900 that had LTE to a Nexus 4 without it, I've never noticed the difference - it might matter more on a network like VZW or Sprint where 3G is laughably slow, but the difference between Cat14 HSPA+ and LTE isn't perceptible in most situations you'd want to use a capped data plan for anyway), I don't know where you get the idea that Adreno 320 is "far worse" than SGX543 MP3. Anandtech;s own benchmarks (http://www.anandtech.com/show/7251/lg-g2-and-msm89... show the various A320 devices, including the Nexus 4, matching or exceeding the iPhone 5 in T-Rex, Egypt, and Basemark both on- (where the iPhone's lower resolution should give it a leg up) and off-screen. The GLBenchmark synthetics have always produced very odd results on ImgTech GPUs that aren't reflected elsewhere.lowlymarine - Tuesday, September 10, 2013 - link
So the comment mangled my link, should have been: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7251/lg-g2-and-msm89...