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SpecEagle review · Apple

iPhone 5c review: Apple's 2013 polycarbonate experiment — the colourful, cheaper iPhone.

SpecEagle Editorial·Sep 2013·$549 (launch)
Overall
55/100
Class rank
#1 of 1
Tier
Legacy
Buy?
Look elsewhere
The verdict, up front

The colourful budget iPhone.

iPhone 5c was Apple's one attempt at a mainstream "cheaper" iPhone before the SE line — a polycarbonate-bodied iPhone 5 in five colours. Commercially it underwhelmed (buyers stretched to the 5s), but it remains a design landmark and a collector favourite.

01Display

58/100

58/100 — right at the average for legacy phones of 2013.

TypeIPS LCD (Retina)
Size4.0 inches
Resolution1,136 × 640 px (326 ppi)

02Camera

52/100

52/100 — right at the average for legacy phones of 2013.

Main8 MP, f/2.4, AF, LED flash
Selfie1.2 MP, 720p
Video1080p @ 30 fps

03Performance

50/100

50/100 — right at the average for legacy phones of 2013.

ChipsetApple A6 (32 nm)
CPUDual-core 1.3 GHz Swift
RAM1 GB
Storage8 / 16 / 32 GB

04Battery

56/100

56/100 — right at the average for legacy phones of 2013.

Capacity1,510 mAh
Wired5 W (Lightning)

05Build

70/100

70/100 — right at the average for legacy phones of 2013.

06Value

56/100

56/100 — right at the average for legacy phones of 2013.

What works
  • Five colourful polycarbonate finishes — distinctive even today.
  • Same A6 chip as the iPhone 5.
  • Reinforced unibody is durable.
  • Reached iOS 10 — long support for the era.
What doesn't
  • Discontinued — last update was iOS 10.3.4 in 2019.
  • 1 GB RAM and 8 MP camera are dated.
  • 1,510 mAh battery is tiny.
  • Was barely cheaper than the iPhone 5s.

How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 1-phone cohort of legacy devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .