Apple iPhone 5C review: Discontinued and no longer supported

Apple iPhone 5C review: Camera

The iPhone 5c has the same 8-megapixel iSight camera from the iPhone 5. It’s not a bad camera, taking detailed shots in bright lighting conditions, although we think that the exposure on the 5S is better and it’s shots have a little bit more detail in them.

Compared side-by-side, the shots from the iPhone 5S (top) and iPhone 5C (bottom) are very similar, but the iPhone 5S has more detail and better exposure

When you get closer, you can clearly see that the iPhone 5S (top) has shots with more detail than produced by the iPhone 5C (bottom)

In low-light, performance starts to suffer a bit, with noise creeping into the picture. Our test shots showed that detail started to be lost; the iPhone 5S with its larger sensor fares much better in low light. Panorama mode is still deeply impressive, as the iPhone 5C will stitch together multiple photos as you pan the camera.

Video is still pretty impressive on the iPhone 5C, with the ability to shoot Full HD video. Again, video in bright lighting conditions looks the best, with plenty of detail in each shot. In darker conditions, detail starts to get lost and noise creeps in.

Apple iPhone 5C review: Conclusion

There’s no doubting that the iPhone 5C is a decent smartphone. It’s well-built, feels tough and has a great screen even by modern standards. It’s also smaller than most modern handsets, which many will prefer. It’s internal specification is now three years old though, so don’t expect it to soldier on much further, as further iOS releases will inevitably pass it by.

That said it’s only one-step down from the iPhone 5S and a new one of those will cost you £379. So if you’re looking to save around £200 or simply can’t afford the extra, a refurbished iPhone 5C with a warranty from eBay is a good buy. Though we’d still recommend buying the iPhone 5S if you can, as it really is a big step up over this handset in terms of speed and feel.

Our iPhone 5C review model was kindly provided by Three which sells all the current iPhone models.