iPhone 5C is Officially Announced, Is the World’s Worst Kept Secret

After months of rumors and leaked images, the cat has been finally let out of the bag. Apple has just recently revealed that there won’t just be one new iPhone this year, but two! The iPhone 5C was the first of the two to be announced and it’s looking like the world’s worst kept secret. Just about everything we’ve seen circulating around the web about the iPhone 5C has been confirmed, from the wide range of bright color options to the design itself. Thankfully, Apple revealed quite a few more things we didn’t already know about the iPhone 5C, leaving us a little bit to talk about.

While it’s supposed to be the cheaper of the two new iPhones, it appears that there was still a fair bit thought that went into the design and construction. According to Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Apple:

The entire back and sides are made from a single part, its front one glass, multi-touch surface. As close as you look, you wont see joints or seams.

Each iPhone 5C will also have a color-matched wallpaper, meaning if you have a bright red model, it will also come with a bright red wallpaper to match, for a seamless overall look. There will also be some cool custom cases made with plastic, but with a steel-reinforced construction method so it doesn’t break as easily. The case will also feature holes that allow the original color to show through. It’s a neat effect, although it seems to sacrifice protection in exchange for what amounts to nothing more than a visual effect, and I can hear the cheese grater jokes already.

The most interesting specs include the screen, which has been confirmed to be the same size and resolution as the iPhone 5. Then there’s the A6 processor that Apple designed in-house. The battery also has a higher capacity then the iPhone 5 and others before it, although no specific number was given. Imaging is handled by an 8mp BSI camera with 5-element lens and another front FaceTime HD camera.

So there you have it: the most plasticky iPhone ever. It addresses the need to create a more affordable iPhone to capture a larger chunk of market share, hopefully without diluting the brand. Many would have argued that releasing a cheaper iPhone would take away from the premium association with the brand. Only time will tell if Apple is successful with that, but so far, there hasn’t been any violent reactions from the tech community.

It does seem to borrow from the success of Nokia’s multicolored Lumia series, and the Finnish company wasn’t slow to pointing it out.

Thanks, #Apple 😉 pic.twitter.com/x4w3r8Ghcy

— Nokia UK (@nokia_uk) September 10, 2013

Of course, prior to going black and white with the original iPods, Apple did color better than any of them.

Anyway, the iPhone 5C will start rolling out to major markets on September 20th and to other regions subsequently after that. No word on off-contract pricing yet, much less what it will cost when it finally does arrive on Philippine shores, but PricePandaPH should have a pretty good idea once it hits retailer shelves in the country.

Source: Apple