Five Features You Can Expect From The iPhone 5C

In less than a week, Apple is rumored to unveil not one, but two new smartphone at a special media event that will be held on September 10th. There are many rumors regarding the two smartphones, but two likely candidates are the iPhone 5S and the long rumored low budget iPhone, which received many names, including iPhone 6, iPhone Light, and iPhone 5C , the later name coming from a leaked photo of its plastic packaging, the C standing for colour(s). We don’t expect Apple to use the iPhone 5C name (in fact, the company may use the name ‘iPhone’ as they did with the iPad after the third generation iPad’s release); we do expect the iPhone 5S to keep its name (as to distinguish the two smartphones). We will continue to call the low budget iPhone, the iPhone 5C in this article.

Of course, the iPhone 5S, being the high end offering, will most likely steal the show at the media event; however we (and many other users) are also interested in the low budget iPhone 5C and we are sure you too want to know what will make it stand out in the low budget market (well, except for being part of Apple’s iPhone series). We’ve had iPhone 5C related rumors for many months and we now have a pretty good image in our minds of what to expect from Apple’s low budget iPhone when it will be released this month.

However, before we go into detail regarding the iPhone 5C’s specs and rumors, here is a bit of background. Many analysts think that Apple’s intention is to offer a cheaper alternative to its iPhone line to people that are in low income regions and emerging markets (such as India, China and Africa – these being untapped markets for Apple) and can’t afford to buy a high end iPhone. Many analysts also believe that Apple is very interested in China as a potential market, citing multiple visits by Apple CEO Tim Cook to the headquarters of China Mobile Ltd. which is the biggest carrier in the world, with no less than 703 million subscribers. So it is assumed that Apple produced the low budget iPhone 5C with the intention of signing a deal with China Mobile and join the Chinese carrier’s vast TD-LTE network.

With that in mind, it is now time to tell you about the five features that you can expect from the iPhone 5C when it will be unveiled on September 10th at the Apple special media event.

Plastic body

You can expect a plastic, less scratchy, body. While the low budget iPhone is expected to come with similar specs and features as the iPhone 5, one of the main differences is the material used for its body. It seems that for the iPhone 5C, Apple ditched the anodized aluminum body that it used for the other handsets in its iPhone series; the material used for the low budget iPhone will be a polycarbonate shell, which is cheapr, but also sturdier and less scratchy.

At the beginning of 2013, Jeremy Horwitz editor in chief at iLounge, claimed the iPhone 5C will be a “cross between the iPhone 5, the fifth-generation iPod touch and — wait for it — the iPod classic”. The iPhone 5C will have a 4 inch display (just like the iPhone 5), a tappered bottom (like the latest iPod touch) and a rectangular design (similar to the iPod classic) and a hybrid chassis – plastic and metal. In its right side we will most likely see a flat SIM card tray (similar to the iPhone 5), while the camera sensor, the microphone and the rear flash should be located at the same place where you can find them in the latest iPod touch.

iPhone 5 specs

As previously mentioned, the low budget iPhone 5C will mostly feature the same specs as the iPhone 5 and of course, the same performance. At leats that is what the rumors indicate – that Apple will launch the iPhone 5C with similar specs as the iPhone 5, oncluding the 4 inches Retina displat that offers a pixels per inch density of 326, the A6 SoC, a FaceTime HD camera and an 8 MP rear camera, that already appeared in some leaked images of the iPhone 5C. As you can see, in terms of hardware, it will offer everything the iPhone 5 offers.

A wide range of colors

To be exact, five rainbow colors. The other major difference between the last year released iPhone 5 and this year’s iPhone 5C, besides the plastic body, will be the fact the iPhone 5C will be launched in five colors, these bing red, green, yellow, blue and white, while the iPhone 5 was released in two silver options. Leaked pictures of the iPhone 5C showed the device with a black front face on every model, regardless of its rear shell color; this seems possible but we don’t exclude the possibility of Apple also including a white and coloured front face options when the device will be released.

iOS 7

Yes, the iPhone 5C will come with iOS 7 out of the box. Rumors often concentrate on a device’s specs and software is often neglected; but the truth is software is juts as important as hardware for the overall experience a handset can offer. This year’s iOS iteration changed the icons, textures and the overall style of the iOS ecosystem, the result being a familiar but also a fresh experience. iOS 7 provides both cosmetic and features upgrade offering many new useful tools; it has the potential to be a very good mobile Operating System. To name a few of iOS 7′s new features: we have the Control Center that is very useful as it offers quick access to very important settings; we also have the AirDrop feature that allows us to share photos or documents with other iPhone users in the area.

Cheap price

Obviously, as it is a low budget iPhone, its selling point won’t be the specs or its form factor; its selling point will be its low price. Together with the low price, the fact that it also comes in five different colors will help it stand out among other low budget handsets. There were a lot of rumors about the iPhone 5C being released with the same price tag as the iPhone 4, which can be purchased for free in the United States, for a two year contract, or 3,000 yuan (the equivalent to about $490) in China.

It looks like these rumors have been confirmed recently on China’s social network Sina Weibo. Ming-Chi Kuo from KGI Securities, who is a reliable analyst, also predicted that the iPhone 5C would release with a price tag between $450 and $550 off-contract which is consistent with the above mentioned rumors.

However, it must be mentioned that if these rumored prices turn out to be true, that Apple will likely have to change its pricing strategy for its iPhone series of handsets. If the iPhone 5S will be released with the rumors price tag of $199 with a two year contract, then the last year released iPhone 5 could drop to a $99 price tag on contract, while the two years old iPhone 4 will be, just as the iPhone 5S, free on contract. There were also rumors suggesting that the iPhone 5 may completely disappear from the iPhone lineup when both the iPhone 5S and the low budget iPhone 5C will be released. However, there are still plenty of differences between the  iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5 so last year’s iPhone could still be included in Apple’s catalog. However, we may see the iPhone 4 removed from its US lineup.

Release Date

Following Apple’s pattern of releasing products we can deduce the following: the company will reintroduce iOS 7 during the September 10th media event and release its new iteration of iOS a week and a day later, on September 18th. Considering that Apple usually releases its newest devices two days after the latest version of iOS is released, a guesstimate for the release date of the upcoming iPhone 5C would be September 20th.

Ming-Chi Kuo, the analyst we mentioned earlier, claims that Apple will release the iPhone 5S after the low budget iPhone 5C will be released in September his argument for the delay being supply constraints. However, we think there is a good chance that Apple will release both devices in the same day – September 20. It has been reported that Apple restricted vacation time for employees between September 15h and September 28th; it has also been reported that T-Mobile also restricted vacations for its employees between September 20th and September 22nd. These reports suggest a single release date for both the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C, that being September 20th.

We would like to know what you think of the iPhone 5C. Would you be interested in purchasing one over the high end (but also more expensive) iPhone 5S, even though it doesn’t have the same features and specs? And do you think that Apple will release both handsets at the same time? You can leave a comment in the dedicated section below.