iPhone 5c review - Telegraph.co.uk

^{Photo taken on iPhone 5c}

^{Photo taken on iPhone 5s}

The biggest change, however, is that the 5c comes with iOS7 - this is a radical new look for the iPhone, and not one that every existing user will embrace. That's not because it is worse but simply because it is very different. With the new look comes an altered font. There's far less, as has been well documented, of the skeuomorphism that dictates a phone's screen should somehow replicate a 1950s desktop. It's hard, for now at least, to see the new OS as anything other than primarily cosmetic in everyday use, but it matches the bold colours of the 5c perfectly, and the new control centre and multitasking is genuinely useful.

And with its neatly designed cases, with holes to provide colour contrast, the 5c looks every bit the junior iPhone to the new 5s. It's younger, and while it may only be slightly cheaper it will appeal to new markets perhaps just enough to keep consumers away from the temptations of rivals for a little longer. If you've got an iPhone 5, it's hard to see why you should buy a 5c.

So this model is by no means revolutionary; it's a conscious shift in a new direction. It's beautiful, in its own way. If you want a new iPhone but have been tempted to go elsewhere, this is the most convenient, easiest option. Apple will tell you it's great; they're right. It's a great, more affordable reason not to go Android. And it's a great replacement for a 4 or a 4S, whose glass many owners will have broken but put up with. Plastic is cheaper for Apple to make, more durable - and more novel. Its novelty, rather than new features, is the 5c's major selling point. Critics may carp that the iPhone doesn't compete with the features offered by many rivals, but the 5c's main rivals are simply other iPhones. It's a great phone, and a stroke of marketing genius.