Less than 24hrs away from the official iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C launches, we at Gadget Helpline have been able to get our hands on the two handsets.
Our first impressions focus on how the handsets feel; the iPhone 5S is everything you would expect from a new Apple device – crisp, clean and very slick looking, but what is surprising is the weight of the handset as the flagship iPhone comes in at just 112 grams and feels light in your hand despite its metal and glass construction.
In contrast, the iPhone 5C has a bit more girth to it in the weight department; the handset feels much heavier than its 5S brother and this is due to an extra 20 grams making the 5C weigh in at 132g, despite the build being mostly plastic.
See also: iPhone 5S vs iPhone 5C: What’s the difference?
Design-wise the 5S is pretty much same as we know from the Apple iPhone 5, but the 5C is the handset that stands out for us. The garish pink hue we were given is not the colour for everyone and the rear plastic casing is slick, but slick can sometimes feel like slippery in our hands – this phone feels very drop-prone!
We wouldn’t like to see how this handset fares on a wet day with a slight hint of water on the hands of the user or the back of the phone, as it’s already very, very shiny and slippery.
Both handsets have exactly the same layout of buttons with the volume controls and lock screen switch on the left side of the phone and the power button on top. The right side has the Nano SIM housing and the bottom of the handsets feature the speakers, 3.5mm headphone jacks and the Lightning cable port.
We lined up the devices next to each other to showcase the differences (or more importantly the similarities) and although the design is very different for the outer shell of the phones, the handsets operate and feel almost identical in the hand.
Inside the packaging for the handsets you get a set of new EarPods headphones, a lightning cable, mains adapter for your region and a quick start guide for each handset.
Now take a look at our pictures whilst we get our grubby fingers all over Apple’s latest handsets.
