The device was released at a lower price point than the new flagship 5s; unlike Apple's usual practice of lowering the price of the previous model upon release of a new version, the iPhone 5 was explicitly discontinued and replaced by the 5c.

[8] The user interface of iOS is based on the concept of direct manipulation using multi-touch gestures.

[11] The design of both iOS 7 and OS X Yosemite (version 10.10) noticeably depart from skeuomorphic elements such as green felt in Game Center, wood in Newsstand, and leather in Calendar, in favor of flatter graphic design.

[11] The phone can act as a hotspot, sharing its Internet connection over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB, and also accesses the App Store, an online application distribution platform for iOS developed and maintained by Apple.

The service allows users to browse and download applications from the iTunes Store that were developed with Xcode and the iOS SDK and were published through Apple.

By swiping up from any screen–including the Lock screen–users can do such things as switch to Airplane mode, turn Wi-Fi on or off, adjust the display brightness and similar basic functions of the device.

The mapping application includes turn-by-turn navigation spoken directions, 3D views in some major cities and real-time traffic.

[16] Users can rotate their device horizontally to landscape mode to access a collage of album covers.

The application uses a natural language user interface to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of Web services.

Apple claims that the software adapts to the user's individual preferences over time and personalizes results.

It is a free, ad-supported service available to all iTunes users, featuring Siri integration on iOS.

The iPhone 5c is available in multiple bright colors for the back — blue, green, pink, yellow, and white, with a black glass front.

[24] The SoC comprises a 1.3 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM and a tri-core PowerVR SGX543MP3 running at 266 MHz.

The dock has received overwhelmingly negative reviews on Apple's online store due to its incompatibility with phone cases.

[31][32][33] Most reviewers generally noted that the iPhone 5s offered more features (thanks to its 64-bit A7 SoC with the M7 motion co-processor) and storage space for a relatively small additional upfront cost (US$650 versus US$550 in March 2014) over the iPhone 5c, during the period that both phones were sold side by side.

[38] Commentators viewed iPhone 5c as a flop because of supply chain cuts signifying a decline in demand in October 2013.