With the same 4in, 640 x 1,136 IPS display as the iPhone 5, the only changes are internal, and these are very small: a slightly bigger battery in the 5c and (UK customers will be pleased to see) full support for all current UK 4G networks. We used it on the Vodafone 4G network during the course of this review and it worked perfectly.
Elsewhere, the CPU is the same 1.3GHz dual-core A6 model, the RAM is still set at 1GB, and the cameras are the same resolution, at 8 megapixels on the rear and 1.2 megapixels on the front.
The 5c isn't even particularly cheap, with prices starting at £469 for the 16GB version SIM-free, and contracts starting at £31 per month for a free phone. Our current A-List favourite, the HTC One goes for around this amount with double the storage, and far more favourable contract prices.
The plastic case makes it feel a completely different handset to its metallic predecessor, though. It gives the 5c a softer, more palm-friendly feel. Some may argue it's a cheaper finish (it's certainly heavier, at 132g) and they're entitled to that view, but there's no evidence that build quality is significantly lower than with the aluminium-framed 5. Give the 5c a twist or a bend and there's very little give, nor any sign of worrisome creak.
However, we at PC Pro were disappointed on pulling our review sample from its plastic box for the first time, to discover the colours aren't that bright after all. The yellow is more crème anglaise than Birds Instant, and the others (blue, pink and green) look a bit like they've been left to fade in the sun. It's also available in white, which we suspect will be the most popular version.
The 5c runs iOS 7, and we've no big beef with it. It adds some genuinely useful extras, such as the control centre, which places settings such as brightness, flight mode and Do Not Disturb at your fingertips, and it gives the OS a much-needed makeover. It would be remiss of us to ignore its teething troubles (you can read about those here and here), but we expect these to be ironed out in due course, and in any case we've found none likely to seriously hamper day-to-day use.
In fact, we've found the 5c runs perfectly smoothly with the new OS, scoring very similar scores to the iPhone 5 across the board. In SunSpider, a score of 718ms is as quick as we've seen from any smartphone, and the result of 1,645 in Geekbench 2 is competitive, too. Just like the iPhone 5 before it, there's plenty of juice for games: the 5c delivered a frame rate of 13fps in the GFXBench T-Rex HD (onscreen) test.
Despite the larger battery, stamina remains similar to the iPhone 5. Under our testing regimen, which involves carrying out a number of typical tasks within a 24-hour period and recording the capacity remaining at the end of that test, the 5c had 60% left. That's average for a modern smartphone, and on a par with its key rivals the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4.
The display remains superb. Such a high resolution stretched across such a small area ensures text is crisp and clean, with no sign of jagged edges or pixel structure anywhere. And it's incredibly bright when you turn the wick all the way up, reaching a maximum brightness of 515cd/m2 in our tests, with a contrast ratio of 1,120:1.
Whether 4in is big enough for a phone costing £469 any more is open to question. In the end, it depends on what you want from a phone. The iPhone 5c is more pocketable than most modern smartphones, which to some will be a major bonus, yet next to the 4.5in and larger competition, it does now feel rather cramped.
Another area where the 5c's specification is beginning to show its age is the camera. There's nothing wrong with the resolution, the optics nor the speed of response. It's a joy to use, and produces balanced shots that burst with detail. The trouble is that other manufacturers have caught up and surpassed it, both in terms of features and versatility.
The HTC One's snapper, for instance, works better in low light; the Nokia Lumia 1020 offers a more effective digital zoom; and both have optical image stabilisation that creates smooth, shake-free video with no reduction in quality, as with the 5c's digital stabilisation. There's also no sign of the extras you frequently get with Android rivals: no waterproofing, no infrared TV remote facility, no NFC and no 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
In the end, though, it's the 5c's price that really lets it down. What we were expecting from Apple when it announced a cheaper version of the iPhone was, well, something that was significantly cheaper than what went before. In fact, what we got was something that's only marginally less expensive, costing £469 SIM free for the 16GB version, and available free only on contracts of £31 per month and above. There's nothing wrong with the hardware, but at this price we feel it doesn't do enough.
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