Apple’s cheaper, more colourful smartphone
The iPhone 5c is one of the most
eagerly anticipated smartphones,
mainly due to rumours that
Apple were planning to make it
incredibly cheap. However, the
16GB iPhone 5c is just slightly
cheaper than the 16GB iPhone 5s
(see our review, November
issue). On top of that, it uses last
year’s technology. And yet,
despite these two apparent
disappointments, it remains a
surprisingly desirable phone.
The most obvious difference
between the two iPhone
versions is that the 5c is made
out of plastic rather than metal.
It’s available in white, red, yellow,
blue and green, and bears a
passing resemblance to Nokia’s
Lumia phones. We actually
prefer the feel of the 5c to the 5s
because the coloured plastic not
only looks great but the rounded
corners mean it’s a lot more
comfortable to use. And because
the 5c’s sturdy build barely flexes
at all, it feels neither slippery nor
flimsy.
Besides the plastic build, the
5c is virtually identical to last
year’s iPhone 5. This use of older
technology not only keeps the
price down but means the 5c has
the same 4in screen as the 5 and
5s, whichwe think is a good
thing. The phone is, as a result, a
sensible size and easy to use
single-handed. Image quality is
good, with bright, accurate
colours and sharp text.
Although the 5c’s dual-core
A6 processor isn’t as fast as the
newer A7 processor found in the
5s, it’s still more than capable of
loading complex webpages and
running the latest apps smoothly,
including many graphically
demanding games. When we
used it to browse the web,
navigate with GPS, take
photos and make calls, the
battery lasted just over 24
hours, which is a good return.
Call quality in central
Mumbai on Vodafone’s 3G
network was merely
satisfactory. Callers reported
that, although we were
audible, we sounded a little
fuzzy and quiet. Backgroundnoise cancellation wasn’t as
effective as on the 5s, with
clanging and rumbling noises
from a nearby building site
proving an annoying
distraction.
Nor is the 5c as good as the
5s, or the Nokia Lumia 1020,
at taking shots in low light.
The images suffer from more
noise, and details aren’t as
sharp, but it’s still a pretty
good camera. Shots taken in
bright daylight are sharp with
accurate colours and plenty of
detail.
Like the 5s, the 5c comes with
the new iOS 7 pre-installed. We
covered some of our favourite
iOS 7 features in our iPhone 5s
review in the last issue. One
feature we didn’t review was the
handy new Today view in the
Notifications drawer, which
shows your appointments, to-do
list and weather forecast. If
you’ve bought music from the
iTunes Store, all your tracks
appear automatically in the Music
app and can be streamed.
There are also plenty of
annoying quirks: some features
are now hidden away and hard to
find, unless you know where to
look for them. At first it appears
that the shortcut key for typing .
com, .co.in and so on is missing
from the keyboard, but has
actually been merged with the
full-stop key. You need to press
and hold it to access the .com
shortcuts. Also, you can no
longer access the Spotlight
search from the left of the first
home screen. Instead you swipe
down from the middle of any
home screen. This new way is
faster, but takes a while to get
used to.
The iPhone 5c isn’t as cheap as
we’d have liked, but it’s still a
good-value smartphone because
it has the best of the iPhone 5
wrapped in a more colourful and
easier-to-use design. It’s a great
upgrade from an iPhone 4 or 4S,
but if you’re not already an
iOS-user then the HTC One Mini
is a cheaper alternative.