Apple designed the iPhone 5 to fit the hands perfectly, and the same concept was applied to 5c fits also with the iOS devices are user-friendly, while also a good pocket fit due to its compact size. The one thing in the device design of concern is the glossy plastic being slippery thus providing a poor grip.
The iPhone 5c, although seemingly different from the iPhone 5, has the exact same controls. The camera placement, light sensors, earpiece, as well as the buttons, the SIM tray, all are the same. At the bottom also, the audio jack, lightning port for charging and connectivity, as well as the microphone and loudspeaker are present, while the main snapper, secondary microphone for noise cancellation and the flash are at the back.
The Apple iPhone 5C, carrying the iOS 7 runs smooth as silk. The new OS comes with some new looks, like menus and keyboards, different system icons and apps, an overhauled control center among other changes. However, the base functionalities, like grouping apps into folders etc. are the same so that users do not feel lost. The folder open and close is also accompanied by cool animation.
From the start, the unlock screen has been revamped, and the swipe to unlock option works when swiped anywhere on the screen, but in the same direction. A small camera icon is also present at the bottom of the unlock screen, and if swiped to that point, the device gets unlocked straight to camera. The security options for unlock, the traditional options of the 4-digit passcode and custom passcode are still available. The swiping up takes users to the Control Center, while swiping down displays the Notifications area. Siri is integrated into messages, so as to allow dictation. The signal and battery icons have also been changed.
Applications can be updated using Opportunistic Updates, meaning that they can be updated in the back end also, as soon as any data connection is available this will enable users to not require extra connections for updates. Even in this feature is a logic to update the apps used more often than others first, and also can update apps as per schedule of usage if such is the case. This can also be setup using the Background App refresh option.
Vimeo and Flickr integration is also available in addition to Twitter and Facebook. Images can be sent directly to Flickr, while videos can be sent directly to Vimeo, using the dedicated icon for Flickr/Vimeo. Another change is taking the users one step back in default apps, which can now be achieved if the screen is swiped from left side of the screen to the right inside any default app.There is the task switcher, which can be used by double tapping the Home key.
The new A6 chipset, a dual-core with 1.3 GHz, powers the iPhone 5c. The dual-core performs on par with the iPhone 5, and gives a stiff test to the quad-core SnapDragon S4 pro series devices, which says a lot for the performance of the device. However, it does trail the SnapDragon 600 and 800 range devices, and with 5S delivering double the performance of 5C, the question still remains as to why Apple would not upgrade the chipset for this device also. Loading time on some apps took a bit longer than our liking, but the overall performance was pretty decent.
The phonebook has a new option, something long awaited, which is the Blacklist. The contacts can be added and removed from the blacklist, and once a contact is blacklisted, calls, messages or Face Time will not be received.
The phone calls have made the best possible use of the multiple mics, as well as having taken out the impending issues in reception due to embedded antenna to greatly improve the call performance. The speaker though, still provides an average sound, with only a slight improvement as compared to iPhone 5. FaceTime has been provided as a system app, witht the ability to work through both Wi-Fi and cellular data, with voice calls also added.
The iMessage service allows messages exchange between iGadgets on iOS 5 via Wi-FI or 3G also. Messages are color coded for identification. The Mail app provides multiple new options like much enhanced text formatting, attachments while composing, dictionary, VIP lists, and flagging options, among others.
Onwards to the image gallery, a new view by the name of Moments has been added, to sort images by date and geo-tagging. Images in one moment can be worked on almost similar to a folder. Views for Year (displaying images grouped by year) and Collection (displays images as custom collections or groups) are also added. AirDrop is present here too, for transfer of multiple files. The Photo Editor has the added option of filters as well.
An overdue overhaul of Apple’s Safari browser was also done to bring it up to speed with the competitors. Options like search/address field unification, full-screen view and the auto-hide, as well as removal of the limit of tabs in a window. All twitter links are automatically fetched to the History in a Shared Links tab. Also, the iCloud keychain is supported, to store all passwords and credit card info, other than the security code. The sync option if iCloud means this is another huge improvement for the ability to sync passwords across all devices.
The iWorks suite s also included in 5C, including the Microsoft Word competitor, Pages, Excel competitor Numbers, and PowerPoint competitor KeyNotes. All Microsoft files for the above are supported. The iMovie editor is also a welcome addition, with all the basic features like adding, merging and cutting videos, pictures and songs.
There has been modification in Siri, for starters a multiple language support, options to modify your voice request in case Siri couldn’t understand correctly, Wikipedia integration, as well as new voices. Siri can also make modifications to the device state, like turning Bluetooth or Wi-Fi on or off, play voicemails, adjust brightness, play iTunes Radio, among other options. Siri also fetches information from other sites, and mostly only its own display is used for such info, like player bio, etc.
