iPhone 5C searches surge 40,500% as retro tech trend takes off

• November 10, 2026

• Searches for ‘buy iPhone 5C’ are up 40,500% in the last year
• This is reportedly due to Gen Z looking for retro digital camera alternatives
• However, using an iPhone 5C comes with major security risks if you don’t take precautions

While the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and iPhone Duo are proving big hits for Apple, you might be surprised to hear that the iPhone 5C is enjoying a resurgence in popularity too.

According to mobile phone recycling comparison site Compare and Recycle, searches for ‘buy iPhone 5C’ — a phone from 2013 — are up 40,500% in the past year. Similarly, searches for ‘iPhone 5C camera’ are up 1,815%, and searches for ‘iPhone 5C’ have risen by 264%.

This is apparently due to Gen Z’s interest in retro cameras and ‘Y2K aesthetic’ photos, which the iPhone 5C, with its 13-year-old 8MP camera, is excellent at capturing.

But buying such an old phone comes with risks. Lee Elliott, chief product officer at Compare and Recycle, notes that “unlike regular digital cameras, the iPhone 5C comes with digital security risks users may not expect. The last iOS version the iPhone 5C can run is iOS 10.3.3, released in 2017. That’s almost a decade without updates or security fixes.”

As such, “the iPhone 5C can’t protect personal data in the way more modern iPhones do, leaving users vulnerable to data leaks, hacking, and other security breaches.”

Use it as a camera, not a smartphone

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy an iPhone 5C if you’re also looking for a retro digital camera alternative, but it does mean you should be aware of the risks and take appropriate precautions.

Lee suggests that ideally you should use the iPhone 5C purely as a digital camera, meaning keeping it offline in airplane mode with no SIM card inserted, and not logging in to your personal Apple ID. You should also therefore transfer photos to your computer using a cable rather than backing them up to iCloud.

If you absolutely must get online and download apps, then create a disposable Apple ID purely for use on this phone, and avoid logging into any other sensitive accounts, such as email, banking, or social media accounts that include personal information.

Do all that, and you can safely enjoy the retro joys of the iPhone 5C’s camera — along with the universal millennial experience of wishing you’d taken those photos with something better when you look back at them in 10 or 15 years.

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