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it's been called the iPhone 5 in a new plastic case but is that all there is to the vanguard of Apple's new mid-range iPhone category more importantly should you consider buying one let's find out I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is our video review of the Apple iPhone 5c so in breaking out of its five-year pattern of just recycling last year's iPhone as the new quote budget iPhone Apple seems to have felt the need to make a statement with the 5c gone is the finely crafted aluminum of last year's iPhone 5 it's been replaced on the 5c with a glossy polycarbonate shell stretched over a steel frame that means the phone feels rigid and robust and it'll probably hold up to scratches better over time than its metal predecessors but it also feels cheaper in the hand with skin oil and fingerprints sticking readily to the plastic body and of course the big advantage to the plastic is you can now customize your iPhones color beyond black and white options and Apple offers a line of soft touch covers if you're looking to cover up the glossy body without completely obscuring the color you've chosen under the hood the situation is much more familiar the 5c gets its processing power from Apple's a6 system on a chip backed up by a gig of ram and either 16 or 32 gigs of on-board storage in keeping with Apple's norms that storage is non expandable and the battery a 5.7 4 watt hour pack is non-removable up front the display is a vibrant IPS panel that boasts excellent color and pixel density but it's four inch diagonal size while convenient for one-handed use is really starting to feel small amid a sea of competitors all of which feature larger displays none of this is new or exciting necessarily the iPhone 5 sees hardware story isn't that of a trailblazer but there's an awful lot of excitement on the software side the iPhone 5c ships with Apple's new iOS 7 which brings the first major overhaul to the platform's UI in its six year history we've reported pretty extensively on iOS 7's new interface so we won't go into too much detail suffice to say if you were comfortable with the way old iPhones worked you'll feel right at home here and if you felt the old platform has grown bloated and stale you'll appreciate the revised look of the new build beyond just aesthetics our favorite additions are the control center which fills a big gap in functionality between iOS and Android and the revised Notification Center who's today's screen serves as a pretty handy virtual assistant overall iOS 7 manages to straddle the line between consistency and new features very well here it manages to be bold and beautiful without losing the responsiveness that's earned the iPhone it's it just works reputation we tested the iPhone 5c over the course of seven days in the suburban Greater Boston and rural New York areas network coverage and speeds on AT&T 3G and 4G networks were solid as we've come to expect and voice quality is OK not outstanding but ok loudspeaker performance is more impressive the bottom firing speaker kicking out a lot of sound and apple's revised ear pod design isn't the most comfortable thing ever but it gets the job done and if you're planning to use the iPhone is your personal media player which you should as you might expect it's an excellent iPod replacement just try to keep your movie watching and audio streaming to a minimum the iPhone 5c s smallish battery won't last power users through a full day you'll want to invest in an external power pack or carry a charger around if you're planning to run the 5c into the ground on a daily basis the 8 megapixel camera around back is the same one found on last year's iPhone 5 and it still does fine but camera technology has advanced so profoundly in the past year that it's now firmly out it still delivers excellent photos in the right light but there's a little more digital noise than we've come to expect and the lack of optical image stabilization means low light performance suffers compared to phones packing newer cameras like the HTC One Lumia 1020 and LG g2 now the five C's camera is solid don't get us wrong it's just not nearly as impressive as those higher-end alternatives in short it's a mid-range camera delivering better than average results for its weight class the finally general performance by which we mean the usual day-to-day usage is predictably outstanding the phone is fast and stable and it executes almost every task with the calm competence we've come to expect from new Apple products that's the reason people buy iPhones they may not outperform the competition on the spec sheet and they may not offer the glitz and frosting of more bombastic devices but they do the best job of providing a well-rounded and very consistent smartphone experience generating the quote surprise and delight that Apple has long prided itself on eliciting the iPhone 5c may not be the most surprising smartphone out there but it's performance is sure to delight most consumers PocketNow gives it an 8 point 4 out of 10 if you'd like to know how the 5c stacks up against the older iPhone 5 and the newer iPhone 5s we have those comparison videos here at pocket now on our channel page and you can check out the full review of the iPhone 5c in written form at pocketnow.com but before you go anywhere please folks like the video if you did enjoy it leave us a comment down below if you have some questions or some feedback and do follow us on social media so you don't miss future content from pocket now until next time this has been Michael Fisher thank you very much for watching and we'll see you soon