The iPhone 5C was the first and, until now, only ‘budget’ iPhone. It came out in 2013, so its successor, the iPhone SE, has been a long time coming.
A lot has changed in that period and you can get a whole lot of decent smartphone for not very much money now, particularly if you opt for Android or Windows over iOS.
In terms of an out and out comparison, the iPhone 5E is competing with smaller Android handsets – but decimates them in terms of spec (if not price). However, a lot of the comparisons will be with the 5C given their place in the iPhone line up, but you can’t even buy the plastic model any more.
So if you’re wondering just how much has changed and how much better Apple’s new affordable iPhone is than its old one you’re in luck, because we’ve put them head to head to give you the answer.
Key features
The iPhone SE is no low-end phone, instead it’s a premium handset in a small size, with a low (for Apple) price tag. A compact 4-inch screen has been coupled with flagship specs, to deliver a phone for fans of the smaller things in life.
The iPhone 5C was every bit as small, but it’s far less premium, with a plastic shell and specs that weren’t quite flagship even at launch. It was trading primarily on a low price tag, plus a colorful design that could appeal to younger users.
Design
The iPhone SE is the hermit crab of the smartphone world: is a powerful phone living in the shell of an iPhone 5S. Which is to say it has an aluminium finish, a two-tone color scheme in gold, silver, rose gold or space gray.
The iPhone 5C was far less premium, with a brightly colored plastic shell in blue, green, white, yellow or pink. It was all one color with no fancy two-tone effect.
But the overall shape is similar to the iPhone SE, though the SE is a little smaller and a lot thinner, at 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6mm, to the iPhone 5C’s 124.4 x 59.2 x 9mm.
The iPhone SE could pass for a flagship, while the iPhone 5C will always look cheap, but it wasn’t an ugly phone.
Screen
This is one area where the iPhone SE and iPhone 5C are quite similar, as both handsets have a small 4-inch display, standing in stark contrast to most recent Apple handsets, which pack 4.7 or 5.5-inch screens.
They also both come in at 640 x 1136, with a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch. As such there’s not much to choose between them in this area, especially as the iPhone SE misses out on the 3D Touch feature found on other recent Apple phones.
Still, the compact size is a major selling point for both handsets, especially the iPhone SE, as it’s now the only 4-inch iPhone available – and one of the only smaller, more powerful phones on the market.
Much better processor
A lot has changed here. The iPhone 5C had an Apple A6 processor, which wasn’t even the most powerful iPhone chip when it launched. It’s now enormously dated, especially compared to the 64-bit Apple A9 chip in the iPhone SE.
That’s a flagship chip – the same one as is used in the iPhone 6S, so you can expect far greater performance from the iPhone SE now and, importantly, it will likely remain competitive for a while yet, which is something we can’t say about the dated and underpowered iPhone 5C.
Plus, the iPhone SE has an M9 motion co-processor in it, which both makes it adept at fitness tracking and allows for hands-free use of Siri.
The iPhone SE also benefits from TouchID and Apple Pay, both of which are lacking from its older sibling.
Camera
The iPhone SE’s camera is also a big improvement on the iPhone 5C’s. Apple’s stuck its latest 12MP sensor in the iPhone SE and paired it with 4K video support, a True Tone flash and support for Live Photos.
The iPhone 5C had just an 8MP snapper, with video recording capped at 1080p and none of those fancy features.
The two handsets both have a 1.2MP front-facing camera, but even here the iPhone SE has the edge, as it can use the screen as a flash to brighten up selfies.
The iPhone 5C didn’t have a bad camera for the time, but the iPhone SE has a snapper fit for 2016.
Battery life
The iPhone SE should have a lot more life in it than the iPhone 5C too. It’s quoted for up to 14 hours of talk time or 50 hours of music for example, while the iPhone 5C conked out after 10 hours of talk or 40 hours of music playback.
Having said that, both phones will likely need a daily charge unless you’re a very light user, so in practice the difference may not be that noticeable.
Price
The iPhone 5C is no longer available, but the most recent RRP back when you could buy it was £319/$450/AU$529 for an 8GB version. That was the only size you could get it in by the end of its life and the iPhone SE thankfully starts at 16GB.
That’s still not much storage, but it’s double what the iPhone 5C offered at the end of its life and for that you’ll pay £359/$399/AU$679. In other words, it’s slightly more expensive, unless you’re in the US, but only slightly more, and for that money you get far more storage, far more power, a premium build and extra features like Touch ID.
Pump it up to 64GB and you’re looking at a price of $499/£439/AU$829, which is still pretty reasonable by Apple’s standards. That’s also far more storage than the iPhone 5C ever offered, with that phone topping out at 32GB.
Ultimately the iPhone SE’s combination of low(ish) price and high-end specs and features makes it a far more promising handset than the iPhone 5C ever was – this is the ‘budget’ iPhone as it should have been.
Source: techradar.com