Hands on with Apple's new Smart Battery Case for iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR
Apple has released a new Smart Battery Case for the latest iPhones. Here are our first impressions of the newly updated accessory.
Smart Battery Case
If you're familiar with Apple's previous Smart Battery Cases -- released for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 7 -- you'll be familiar with the new lineup. This time around, the accessory is available in black and white for the XS, XR, and XS Max. A first for the larger sized iPhones.
Instead of just updating the size, Apple went a step further and completely redesigned it to look better and be more capable than the previous iterations.
The exterior is still made of soft silicone that is easy to grip but makes it more difficult to pull out of tight pockets and has an affinity for collecting a bit of lint. A soft microfiber lining blankets the interior to help cradle your phone. Most of the case is solid, but the top portion is flexible, just as it was before. The top bends back making it dead-simple to slip the phone in or take it out.
The lower portion has a different shape than the previous model. It drops the chin that used to sit below the bottom of the phone, now fitting much tighter. The battery on the back also extends all the way to the bottom rather than stopping part way, creating an odd bump.
Smart Battery Case Lightning port
Apple still stuck with a Lightning port on the battery case, a choice we prefer for this accessory class. This means regardless if you have the case on or off, you only need one cable. Apple has also upgraded the charging speed so that if you use a USB-C to Lightning cable and a USB-C PD charger, it will power up much faster. If fast charging isn't your thing, use Qi wireless charging.
Smart Battery Case wirelessly charging
A lot of misinformation went around in the hours before the cases landed in consumers hands regarding the capacity. To set things straight -- these new cases are the most powerful Apple has ever released.
Smart Battery Case
They have a smaller 1369mAh battery internally, but instead of a large single cell as in years past, they've put two smaller cells and wired them in series. This lets them keep the amperes the same, but double the voltage, netting 10.1Wh of power. The last model Apple released for the iPhone 7 was only 8.98Wh.
We will be putting the new Smart Battery Case through its paces over the next few days for our full review, but if you are eager to get your hands on one you can pick it up now for $129.99.
Smart Battery Case
If you're familiar with Apple's previous Smart Battery Cases -- released for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 7 -- you'll be familiar with the new lineup. This time around, the accessory is available in black and white for the XS, XR, and XS Max. A first for the larger sized iPhones.
Instead of just updating the size, Apple went a step further and completely redesigned it to look better and be more capable than the previous iterations.
The exterior is still made of soft silicone that is easy to grip but makes it more difficult to pull out of tight pockets and has an affinity for collecting a bit of lint. A soft microfiber lining blankets the interior to help cradle your phone. Most of the case is solid, but the top portion is flexible, just as it was before. The top bends back making it dead-simple to slip the phone in or take it out.
The lower portion has a different shape than the previous model. It drops the chin that used to sit below the bottom of the phone, now fitting much tighter. The battery on the back also extends all the way to the bottom rather than stopping part way, creating an odd bump.
Smart Battery Case Lightning port
Apple still stuck with a Lightning port on the battery case, a choice we prefer for this accessory class. This means regardless if you have the case on or off, you only need one cable. Apple has also upgraded the charging speed so that if you use a USB-C to Lightning cable and a USB-C PD charger, it will power up much faster. If fast charging isn't your thing, use Qi wireless charging.
Smart Battery Case wirelessly charging
A lot of misinformation went around in the hours before the cases landed in consumers hands regarding the capacity. To set things straight -- these new cases are the most powerful Apple has ever released.
Smart Battery Case
They have a smaller 1369mAh battery internally, but instead of a large single cell as in years past, they've put two smaller cells and wired them in series. This lets them keep the amperes the same, but double the voltage, netting 10.1Wh of power. The last model Apple released for the iPhone 7 was only 8.98Wh.
We will be putting the new Smart Battery Case through its paces over the next few days for our full review, but if you are eager to get your hands on one you can pick it up now for $129.99.
Comments
It looks like the bottom of the new battery case is rigid, but I am curious if it is flexible at all. It looks like it is rigid, maybe it has a metal housing inside to mount the lightning port. The upper part was shown to be flexible in the demo video, but it looks thicker than my old 6s case. I wouldn't mind replacing a $39 silicon case but the $129 battery case better be a lot more durable.
Also it is important that the battery case keeps the screen from touching the table when it's face down. Apple paid some attention to this in my old 6s case, it has maybe a millimeter gap, so if it falls face down it's less likely to damage the screen. I hope the rim is a bit larger on this case than my old one.
BTW, I like the silicone surface, it feels good in my hand and it's grippy enough that I like how it helps stability in gaming. It is not at all difficult to pull out of my pocket.
-They are a little harder to remove than previous versions, maybe there is a break-in period. Material feels great.
-There is a lip on the bottom of the phone for some reason, a departure from other Apple silicone/leather X/XS cases, so the swipe up home gesture felt funny for a few tries.
-Despite the capacity controversy, they seem to be only capable of charging half of the phone’s battery capacity in my usage, so one case will get me from 0 to 50%. I have the phone in low power mode with the screen off when charging for this test.
-Perhaps my biggest disappointment: I just replaced all my Mophie flat pucks and 29-watt iPhone lightning docks with the amazing new Logitech stand Apple worked with them on, and have them all over the house. Typically I used to leave one or both batter cases charging when not in use. The cases appear to charge in this stand (case LED turns amber), but at a very slow rate (8 hours got the case from 0 to 20%; just the case, without the phone). The Apple support article says if the case charges slowly, make sure the Apple logo is centered on the puck. The odd thing is, the Apple logo on the case seems to be right about in the middle of the phone, in other words it’s in the same position as the sweet spot of the phone. Nonetheless, I had to bring out the pucks again and it took several attempts to get it positioned just right to charge at a decent pace. Looks like I must go back to the lightning dock with 29-watt USB-C adapter and cables, but if the case only ups my iPhone 50%, not sure it’s worth it. The iPhone 7 case nearly got the phone fully recharged.
-It feels amazing in the hand!!
only other thing would be to have a second USB-C charging port so that you could borrow your friends cable if you forgot yours.
Overall, I like it. But I will probably still use my Totalee clear case for evenings out.
Don't bother about Lenn. He's just here to get a rise out of anybody.
The total power contained in battery is the same whether you have 2 batteries in parallel or series. Depending on the other circuitry, putting them in series may be more efficient or have other advantages. You can be certain this was thought of in the design process, though.
Maybe both - it's not out of line with the cost of the Mophie, but is definitely expensive. To be fair, it has a lot of nice features to integrate it with the phone that make it more than an extra battery slapped on the back. Also, I was in Best Buy a few weeks ago looking at cases for my new Xs and was shocked at what they were charging. 'basic' cases that were just a single piece of molded plastic were going for $30 and better cases were upwards of $50. And that's without any battery. In that context the price isn't so unreasonable. Or at least isn't out of line.