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# Apple's iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C: What You Should Know

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xWVkGCv3.m3u8" -->
## Video: Apple's iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C: What You Should Know

[Watch (HLS stream): Apple's iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C: What You Should Know](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xWVkGCv3.m3u8) (3:02)

![Apple's iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C: What You Should Know](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/xWVkGCv3/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2013-09-10. Apple rolled out the $200 iPhone 5S and the $100 iPhone 5C at the same time. TIME Tech's Doug Aamoth offers info and buying advice._


---

Jul 27, 2023 3:43 PM UTC

---

## More From This Series

[All Videos](https://time.com/video/)

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### You’ll Now Be Able to Play ‘Mario’ on Your iPhone

[Apple Announcement: iPhone 5C](/video/0XXhxWA6/)

### Apple Announcement: iPhone 5C

[Zombeavers Proof of Concept Trailer](/video/tBRgYlKJ/)

### Zombeavers Proof of Concept Trailer

---


## Transcript

>> Okay. Here's the situation. The iPhone went away on a year's vacation and it's being replaced by the iPhone 5S. Should you get it if you're off your contact? Maybe yes. It's complicated 'cause Apple announced 2 phones and killed the iPhone 5 completely and now the iPhone 4S is zero dollars. It's madness, but, oh, let's try to get through this. Let's start with the iPhone 5S, which looks somewhat similar to the iPhone 5 except it will be available on three colors; silver, gold, and space gray. Ooh! Space gray. It will be a little bit faster than the iPhone 5. It will have a better camera than the iPhone 5 and it will have a built- in fingerprint reader where the home button is.

You can use the fingerprint reader to unlock your phone if you use a pin to lock it or to make iTunes purchases and it's assumed that third party apps will eventually build in a fingerprint recognition instead of making you enter password, say your little banking app or something like that. While other smartphones have 32- bit processors, the iPhone 5S has a 64- bit processor, which I realize you don't even care about. And it probably won't even matter for a few years until Apple starts harnessing the extra processing ability to address extra RAM. Have you-- Are you still watching the video? Let's bring it back.

It's also got a motion processor, which will work with a new breed of fitness apps to measure the phone's position and gyroscope [ unk ] and all that. Happy crap. So, just by buying this phone, you will get super cut. You will be ripped, right? I don't know. The iPhone 5C is now Apple's 100- dollar phone. It's available in 5 colors; white, pink, yellow, blue, and green. And it's made of polycarbonate, which is a fancy way of saying plastic. The iPhone 5C is very similar internally to the iPhone 5 except that it's got a little bit better battery. It's got a little better front- facing camera and it's cheaper.

So now the big question. If you already have an iPhone, you're still under contract, do you need to rush out to your driveway and jump in your car and peal out without looking, maybe knocking over a bush or worst a child and rush to the store and upgrade right now, breaking your contract? Probably not. And if you're ready for an upgrade, you wanna stick with an iPhone, should you get the iPhone 5S or the iPhone 5C?

>> The iPhone 5S is faster. It does have some extra camera tricks. And it's got that fingerprint reader. It's made of higher quality build materials. The iPhone 5C is not a cheap phone just because it's made of polycarbonate. A lot of phones on the market right now are made of polycarbonate. Basically, an iPhone 5 on the inside with a couple spec bumps here and there. So, you could do worse than the iPhone 5C. And hey, it comes with a lot of pretty colors. My advice to you with any phone, if you're looking to upgrade and you're gonna sign another 2- year contact, is to get the best phone available you can at the time because you have to live with it for 2 years.

With that being said, you wanna save a little money? The iPhone 5C is not going to ruin your life. I would maybe stay away from the iPhone 4S, but I understand that it's free. Free is nice. Free is nice.

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