Two new iPhone models have been unveiled by Apple at special media event at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, California.
The iPhone 5c is a new, low-cost, plastic iPhone which should help the company compete against cheaper Android handsets.
The new handset features a plastic rear in a choice of colours – blue, white, pink yellow and green – made from hard-coated polycarbonate and reinforced with a steel interior.
It also offers 4-inch Retina display, the same A6 processor as the iPhone 5, a 8MP rear camera and Bluetooth.
“iPhone 5c is everything iPhone 5 was and more, in an all-new design packed with great features,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “iPhone 5c is designed with a beautiful polycarbonate enclosure that looks and feels so solid in your hand.”
The higher spec iPhone 5s comes in silver, gold or space grey aluminium, and 64-bit A7 chip, described as the first ever on a smartphone by Schiller.
Apple claims the handset is 40 times faster than the original iPhone and offers 10 hours of talk time over 3G and 40 hours of music playback.
And, in a bid to boost security, the iPhone 5S also includes a fingerprint scanner in the home button which allows the user to lock the device and be sure that only they can access their data.
Schiller said: “iPhone 5s sets a new standard for smartphones, packed into its beautiful and refined design are breakthrough features that really matter to people, like Touch ID, a simple and secure way to unlock your phone with just a touch of your finger.”
The new iPhones will include free copies of Apple’s word processing and spreadsheet programmes which had previously been sold separately in the App Store.
Both handsets will go on sale in the UK on September 20th. The iPhone 5C starts at £469 while a 16GB iPhone 5s will set you back £549.