Apple unveiled its new iPhones at a press event in Cupertino, California today, revealing the iPhone 5S and the colorful iPhone 5C. With the numerous leaks that we’ve seen over the past months about the iPhone 5C, today’s announcement wasn’t much of a surprise. Basically an iPhone 5 in a plastic casing with five color options, the iPhone 5C is Apple’s budget smartphone offering, aimed at gaining market share in emerging markets and wooing first time iPhone users into the Apple camp. Now that the iPhone 5C has been officially announced, it’s time for an in-depth look at the features of Apple’s pastel colored offerings.
Like the iPhone 5, the iPhone 5C touts a 4-inch retina display with a 1136 x 640 pixel resolution at 326 ppi. The unit boasts a height of 4.9 inches, a width of 2.33 inches, depth of 0.35 inches and weighs in at 4.65 ounces. The handset packs an A6 processor running at an unknown clock speed, an undetermined amount of RAM, and comes in 16GB and 32GB variants. Models will be available for the big four U.S. carriers, T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, and supports all LTE bands in the U.S., as well as ones in China and other parts of the world. The device also sports a digital compass, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
The iPhone 5C’s iSight camera comes in at 8MP, with a LED flash as well as a backside illumination sensor, which should help picture quality in low-light situations. The camera also boasts auto-focus, face detection, panorama and geotagging. The camera films 1080p HD video at 30fps, and offers a 3x zoom as well as video stabilization. iPhone 5C owners will now be able to take still photos while recording a video, a welcome feature for those times when a video is just not enough.
The front facing camera comes in at 1.2MP, which allows for photos with a resolution of 1280 x 960 and 720p HD video recording. FaceTime hasn’t gone anywhere, and is possible with any FaceTime enabled device. The device will come with five color options,white, pink, yellow, blue and green, along with multiple color cases that will retail for $29.
The iPhone 5C utilizes a nano-SIM card, which is also used in the iPhone 5 . A lightning connector resides on the bottom of the device for power, and the battery is said to deliver up to ten hours of talk time when on a 3G network. The smartphone also includes a three-axis gyro, an accelerometer, proximity sensor and ambient light sensor.
The iPhone 5C will be available for pre-order on September 13th, and will be available for purchase on September 20th. The 16GB version will be $99 with a new two-year contract, and the 32GB version will cost $199 on contract. An unlocked version will be available at some point, with a price point of $549.
Quite a list, huh? And that’s not even all of the features packed into Apple’s little plastic device. Coming in at $99 on-contract, the iPhone 5C will definitely sell like hotcakes. What color will you choose?