As promised Apple launched an ‘affordable’ iPhone yesterday. The iPhone 5C is a slight update to the iPhone 5 with a new plastic body, but how does it compare to mid-range Chinese phones?
It was no surprise that Apple had a mid-range iPhone ready for launch yesterday. We had seen the leaked images months ago, and Chinese clone makers have already put together their own Android powered knock-off!
The iPhone 5C is actually a slight update on the iPhone 5, but with a plastic body to keep costs down, however it isn’t as affordable as many of us would have hoped. Chinese commenters are making jokes saying the ‘C’ actually stands of ‘Costly’ as it will cost an unbelievable $734 when it launches here in China!
iPhone 5C vs mid-range Chinese Android phones
Costing double of current flagship phones the iPhone 5C is not a cheap phone, and things don’t look any better for the baby iPhone when we compare it’s hardware to mid-range offerings from Chinese phone makers which cost less than half the price!
Gizchina News of the week
The iPhone 5C has the lowest resolution and the poorest camera specification of the models above, although iOS7’s new camera app is very attractive. The Apple A6 processor is also running at just 1.3Ghz and is a dual-core design where as the Meizu and Oppo have quad-core chips.
Oppo offer the R819 with a choice of either the original Oppo ROM, Color ROM or a stock Android install, the MX2 runs Flyme 3.0 but MIUI is also available, and MIUI on the Xiaomi Mi2A is one of the most feature packed and frequently updated ROMs available!
The Xiaomi has a dual-core CPU like the iPhone 5C however it runs at a much faster 1.7Ghz, the Mi2A also has NFC and 5Ghz WIFI (the only phone on the list to do so).
iPhone 5C or mid-range Chinese phone: what’s your choice?
Looking at the specs above the features and the pricing of these 4 mid-range smartphones, which would you choose? Will you pay the premium for the Apple iPhone 5C or would you save a significant amount of money and gain a great number of features with one of the Chinese phones? Let us know in the comments section below!
5C was supposedly a budget phone, bit still turns our to be above 500 dollars. The specs, too, besides the CPU, were not that impressive. I think a more fair comparison would be against Android phones at the same price level, and we’d see how competitive Apple products have been.
Xiaomi Mi2A the obvious choice for me. It is afterall, the best dualcore phone.
Wow, I didn’t know that the Mi2A had an F/2.0 sensor! Impressive!
*f2.0 aperture*
5c got LTE, at least based on apple website:
iPhone 5c
Model A1532 (GSM)
Model A1532 (CDMA)
lte band support:
1 (2100 MHz)
2 (1900 MHz)
3 (1800 MHz)
4 (AWS)
5 (850 MHz)
8 (900 MHz)
13 (700c MHz)
17 (700b MHz)
19 (800 MHz)
20 (800 DD)
25 (1900 MHz)
Wow second one looks awesome. thanks
To correct the graph abit,the OPPO R819 is $350 and yes,the 5C is a pricing joke. I would love to see this compared to the Ubuntu Edge,they are after all,the same price. LOL.
Apple wasnt really smart with Iphone 5C…they packed Iphone 5 in worse materials..so they will earn more money..and still sell that product at the same price as Iphone 5…and dont tell that they upgraded some things on 5C that 5 doesnt have…5C has larger battery…and they didnt say how much larger..so you will only get 15 min of runtime more…maybe!!! materials are more expensive than 50 mah upgrade of battery that they made…
Anybody who buyes 5C is a fool..I aint Apple hater…but that are the facts..
I would take phone with dual sim support instead of iPhone.
Then lets guess why China Mobile is still ‘in talks’ with Apple.
(in other words…at total standstill….)
Apple thinks it can dictate CM and ask for ‘fees’. Letting CM pay a fee for every subscribed user
Apple thinks it can dictate CM to give 30% of profit from selling the phone
Apple doesn’t realize CM is the bigges Telco worldwide and CM does not need Apple.
Apple thinks Telco and phones goes hand in hand….but doesn’t realize in China most folks buy there phone independent from the Telco.
Lets see in three months where Apple stands. If only Xiaomi could match the production numbers of Apple…..
Oh did you read the news about the factory where they produce the 5c?
Working conditions are much worse compared to Foxconn.
But nobody wants to point out the owner and CEO is an American….
If one cares more about the big name and less conscious about price, then iPhone 5C is the sure choice. Nonetheless, for Apple fans boys, the path is set already.
For the rest, why one would like to enter a tightly controlled ecosystem such as iOS? Even though Google grips tightly the Android OS, user still has choice to opt out the unwanted apps incl. even the Google Play store.
And further, pay the ridiculous $734 (China) for the low specs model (inferior screen) ? Ha ha ha only the fool will make selection based on name solely, ignoring the actual specs!!
However, iPhone has a clear plus, it’s certified as an nsacompliant. Other models mentioned here may not pass such certification!
Search and read on the article: “Which Apple Components Were Developed By The US Government” (2013-09-09) telling about the joint ventures, components of Apple’s devices that were originally developed by the US government.
“While the investing community this morning is focused squarely on the very disappointing iPhone 5 relaunch and the lack of a cemented China Mobile deal, which has resulted in a $20 billion loss in market cap in early trading for the second most widely held hedge fund stock, a thing that we find more curious in the aftermath of the latest revalations of an implicit, if not explicitly voluntary, joint venture between Apple and the US government and specifically its NSA uberspies, is just how much of Apple’s product suite is derived thanks to developments by the US government.”
It’s a smartphone… That doesn’t mean it’s a smartcompany. As with the human brain: after it’s peak moments, old people can suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. I wonder if there’s a cure for Apple. I had the 3G in the past (got it for free in the company I worked at that time) and have foudn apple policies quite ridiculous. They lost me as a future client with thei upgrades that slows down your Phone and the needed app updates untill you come to the point they do not service your Phone anymore (so you can not download any apps anymore). When you then calculate the price of an iPhone to the few years you can actually use it: the price is even more shocking. I am now the happy owner of a quad core from China and I can use all the apps through Android that I had before on the iPhone. And I did not need an extra mortgage on my house to pay for it.
I now know what the C in iPhone 5 C stands for… It is not China, it is not colour, it is not Crocs (as they are full or colour too and too expensive for what they are), not for cheap (definately not for cheap)… but for Cretin. As in the people who buy them. (If you do not know what a cretin is, you can google it).
Wow this is great news for the Chinese companies. They aren’t gonna have to worry about Apple at all for at least a year now. This phone is a joke at this price. $649 price for China? LMFAO! Who is gonna buy this at that price? It would be a great phone for $350.
Oh you have $739 for the price on 5C. How do people in China feel about being charged $190 bucks more for a phone that sells in the US for $550? ($550 is way overpriced even) Seems like a pretty crazy move on Apple’s part, the pricing on this.
If the lower end model, iPhone 5C, goes for US$550 in the USA (US$739 in China) then how much the higher model, iPhone 5S with 64gb memory goes for in CHINA ???
In the USA, Apple’s new iPhone 5c will run US$549 for a 16GB and US$649 for a 32GB model off contract, according to Apple’s store site.
Meanwhile the iPhone 5s will continue to run US$649 (16GB), US$749 (32GB) and US$849 (64GB) off-contract.
Ha ha ha….what kind of bold prices 🙂 those iPhones really belong to those Apple’s fan boys and perhaps, some pervert fashionable aficionado, name/brand-seekers and the nouveau-riche!
The 5C is a mom phone.
Andi I have question..how does Gionee Elife E3 stack up with this phones…do you have any site that this phone can be ordered internional..tnx upfront
I have never tried one sorry
The highlights:
APPLE INTRODUCES IPHONE 5S
IPHONE 5S Includes ‘Touch Id’ Fingerprint-Sensor Technology
IPHONE 5S Includes Slow-Motion Video-Recording Feature
IPHONE 5S Adds Burst Mode To Take 10 Pictures Per Second
IPHONE 5S Adds Improved Camera Lens
IPHONE 5S Includes A7 64-Bit Chip
IPHONE 5S CPU Performance Is 40X From Original iPhone In 2007
IPHONE 5S Includes White, Black, Gold Colors
IPHONE 5S Is Twice As Fast As iPhone 5
Finger-Touch Sensor Is Located On iPhone 5S Home Button
IPHONE 5S To Cost $199 To $399 With Two-Year Contract
And the punchline:
IPHONE 5S INCLUDES ‘TOUCH ID’ FINGERPRINT-SENSOR TECHNOLOGY
The Agencies will be very grateful for Apple’s paying clients who make their job so much easier in building the fingerprint database…
The price between S & C is just too small! S is the obvious choice!
many western culture Apple users have tunnel vision and will never look elsewhere. They consider that phone a status symbol. They have wasted so much money and time buying and installing their apps, etc. they don’t want to loose that investment and it syncs. they don’t know or care many android apps are free, better and the same or just as versatile. Android users are open thinkers generally and open to all operating systems. As Apple users are tunnel visioned, status reliant robots, they will not change, shop and/or compare.. Chinese phones are great. I have a couple and will get more in the future. price and quality are outstanding int he Chinese phone arena.
For the price iphone 5C charges, the competition isn’t any of these phones, but Oppo N1, Xiaomi Mi3 etc.