Apple’s own battery case, cleverly titled the Smart Battery Case, has been on the market for over two years now. I had never really taken an interest in it; it was just another battery case, only this one looked like it was pregnant with an iPod.
That was until last week, when I was desperately in need of some form of charger for my iPhone and decided to pick one up. Since then, my thoughts on what was just an ugly, overpriced battery case have totally changed.
Check out the video below to find out why it’s earned a place in my heart — and is now my favorite iPhone case.
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We all know that the Smart Battery Case is ugly. It’s the Quasimodo of iPhone cases. I’m not going to argue on that one. But if, like me, you’ve never actually tried one, you may be surprised to hear it’s actually really comfortable to hold. It adds much-needed extra grip to an otherwise slippery smartphone, and the rubberized texture feels great in the hand.
That hump on the back not only makes it really easy to hold in one hand for long periods of time but also stops the case feeling bulky — unlike some other battery cases I’ve tried. In fact, it’s still easily slim enough to slide in and out of my jeans pockets.
A lot of people may be bothered that there are no LED indicators around the phone to show how much juice the case has left. Thankfully, though, it’s super easy to check the exact percentage by swiping down into the Notification Center. There is also an LED indicator on the inside of the case (for when my phone’s not in there) to indicate that the case is charging.
In the bottom chin of the case, there are two speaker grills. These direct the sound towards you when you’re holding your iPhone, rather than down towards your feet. As a result, I can hear a significant difference in volume. Behind the speaker grills, there’s actually a pair of acoustical ports for the speaker and microphone channels making sure the sound doesn’t become muffled.
Apple probably could have squeezed in a 3.5mm headphone jack adapter in the chin, but to be honest, it doesn’t bother me that it’s missing. I’m not in the army of headphone jack protesters as I either use Bluetooth headphones like my Beats X, or on rare occasions the Lightning EarPods that came with my iPhone.
The meat and potatoes of the Smart Battery Case is a 2365 mAh battery, which claims to deliver 26 hours of talk time, 22 hours of LTE browsing, and 24 hours of video playback. That means it nearly doubles the battery life of your iPhone 7.
How does that translate to real-world use? Well, my battery used to be at about 20 percent by around 3 p.m. every day after moderate use. Now, my phone will now still be 100 percent come 9 pm. It’s really rather strange to see my iPhone’s battery still completely full after using it for an entire day. Once the case has been drained I’ll then see my battery percentage begin to drop as usual.
If you’re interested in buying one, be sure to check out Amazon, as I’ve since found the case to be cheaper there. In fact, at this moment in time, you can pick one up for just under $85 — and it’s well worth it.
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