New iPhone 'Beautifully, Unapologetically Plastic'

Apple officially unveils iphones 5S, 5C, and more
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 10, 2013 2:05 PM CDT
New iPhone 'Beautifully, Unapologetically Plastic'
Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, speaks on stage during the introduction of the new iPhone 5c in Cupertino, Calif., Sept. 10, 2013.   (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Apple is hoping its new, cheaper iPhone can make plastic cool. As expected, Apple unveiled two new iterations on its popular smartphone today, the premium 5S, and the budget-friendly 5C. "The iPhone 5C is beautifully, unapologetically plastic," designer Jonathan Ive said, according to the Washington Post. Here's everything you need to know from the unveiling:

  • The advent of the new iPhones will put the iPhone 5 out to pasture, but, curiously enough, not the 4S.
  • As predicted, the 5S will come with a new stainless steel fingerprint-reading home button. You'll be able to use it to unlock the phone or make purchases. The fingerprint data will not be stored on Apple's servers, which means that "presumably the NSA can't tap it," the Telegraph observes.
  • The 5S will be available in not just gold, but silver and "space gray" as well. Black will no longer be an option. The 5C, meanwhile, will come in what the Huffington Post quips are "candy colors": white, blue, green, rose, and yellow.
  • The 5S will boast a powerful A7 chipset, and run 64-bit software. It's five times as fast as the iPhone 5 and 40 times faster than the original iPhone released six years ago. But not everyone's impressed: "They're talking about specs because they fear smartphones are becoming Good Enough," Matthew Yglesias argues.
  • The 5C will have the same screen, camera, and A6 chip of the iPhone 5. "Looking at the specs of the 5C, it becomes clear why the 5 was retired," analyst Carolina Milanesi observes. "This is NOT the cheap product that many expected."
  • The 5C will start at $99, while the 5S will start at $199, with a new contract. The 4S will be available for free, again, with a new contract.
  • Apple stock is plunging following the event, and Business Insider writer Steve Kovach thinks it's because the market is disappointed that the 5C, which will cost $549 without a contract, will be too expensive for emerging markets.
(More Apple stories.)

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