Apple launches gold iPhone — and a low-cost version

Michelle Clancy | 11-09-2013


Apple has opened the kimono on the next version of the iPhone, with two new models. The iPhone 5S will change up the colour scheme with a gold option, and, for the first time, Apple has launched something for the lower end of the market: the iPhone 5C.

The iPhone 5S is twice as fast as its predecessor to support HD video streaming, comes with fingerprint biometrics and offers ten hours of 3G talk time, ten hours of LTE browsing, ten hours of Wi-Fi browsing and up to 250 hours of standby time. The other specs are comparable to the existing iPhone5, which is why it didn't earn the 'iPhone 6' designation. It will start at $199 with a two-year contract for the 16GB model, and will be available for sale on 20 September.
The iPhone 5S case is aluminium and will come in silver, gold and 'space grey'.
The iPhone 5C, meanwhile, is polycarbonate (i.e., plastic), and will come in five colours: green, blue, white, red and yellow. It starts at $99 and will be available for pre-order from 13 September.
"The iPhone 5C is beautifully, unapologetically plastic," Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said at the launch event. "Multiple parts have been reduced to a single polycarbonate component whose surface is continuous."