Which Is A Better Buy? Apple iPhone 5 vs Apple iPhone 5C

Apple has released not one but two smartphones this year, as opposed to their legacy of releasing one flagship iPhone every year. They used to reduce the price of the last generation iPhone after the new announcement of new iPhone version. This time around, instead of reducing the price of iPhone 5, they have completely replaced it with the all new iPhone 5C.

The iPhone 5C comes with an all new design with polycarbonate plastic material and various colour options. Internally though, it is almost exactly similar to the iPhone 5. So is it better to buy the iPhone 5C or is it wiser to buy an iPhone 5? Let us compare them and conclude which one is either better or worse in comparison.

Screen, Design & Build Quality

With the iPhone 5, Apple moved to a screen larger than 3.5 inches, for the first time. They changed the length of the screen which resulted in to a change in screen aspect ratio. Both the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5C are equipped with 4 inch Retina Displays with a resolution of 1136 x 640 pixels. Both of them perform nearly identical but for those with the discerning eyes, the iPhone 5 has a slightly better performing display, just by a hair’s margin. The iPhone 5 screen can display brighter whites, deeper blacks and higher contrast ratio than the screen used in the iPhone 5C.

The iPhone 5 was built with Aluminium, complete with chamfered edges and chrome accents. On the other hand, the iPhone 5C comes with a plastic body which is taller, wider and thicker than the iPhone 5 body. It also has rounded-off edges which although, is better to hold.

Internal Hardware & Performance

Both the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5C are powered by a 1.3 GHz dual-core Apple A6 processor and 1 GB of LPDDR2 RAM. iPhone 5 comes in 3 storage variants; 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB. On the other hand, the iPhone 5C comes only in 2 storage variants; 16 GB and 32 GB. Both of them perform nearly similar when it comes to CPU and GPU related tasks. Users can find no visible difference between both of them.

Camera & Multimedia

The iPhone 5 and iPhone 5C is equipped with 8 MP, LED flash, Autofocus and full HD 1080p video recording. Both perform exactly similar in day-light as well as low-light situations. Both are missing the dual-tone LED flash which is present in the iPhone 5S. The video recording is smooth but lacks the kind of quality in low-light situations.

Connectivity & Battery Life

Both of them come with dual-band Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0 and lightening connector. The iPhone 5C comes with an all new antenna and hardware baseband so it is compatible with a wider range of 4G LTE networks. The iPhone 5C is compatible with 4G LTE networks in China and India, whereas the iPhone 5 isn’t.

Although equipped with a larger battery, the iPhone 5C under performs when compared to iPhone 5. By having a look at the table below, one can understand that except the 3G talk-time, the iPhone 5 beats the iPhone 5C with its battery life in web browsing, be it over Wi-Fi or cellular network as well as the video playback time.

Battery Life (In Hours)	Apple iPhone 5	Apple iPhone 5C
3G Talk-Time	8:42	10:18
Web Browsing (Wi-Fi)	9.56	9.05
Web Browsing (Cellular)	8.57	8.52
Video Playback	10:12	7:41

Pricing, Availability & Conclusion

The iPhone 5 is available in India at a price tag of around INR 40,000 while the iPhone 5C still isn’t available, not only in India but also a lot of countries around the world. If ever it becomes officially available in retail and online stores, the iPhone 5C price will be around INR 43,000. If you are out to buy a high-end smartphone with a budget of INR 40,000, you should be better buying the iPhone 5, thanks to premium design, slightly better performance as well as battery endurance. There are no notable improvements in the iPhone 5C when compared to the iPhone 5, what you get is, cheaper and thicker design.