The achillies heel of the modern smartphone is battery life, hence the multitude of battery packs and third-party battery boosting cases flooding onto the market. It’s solved a problem, but you’ve had to get that solution from elsewhere.
Now Apple has finally decided to step into the battery case game itself, and has launched its own slim case for iPhone 6S and 6. It looks very similar to the company’s existing range of iPhone cases, but this one has a built-in battery that promises to increase your talk time up to 25 hours or give you a further 18 hours of surfing on a 4G connection.
The case, which slips over the iPhone rather than bolt around it, will come in two colours – charcoal or white. Of course it does however add some extra length and thickness to the iPhone, but there’s always going to be a trade-off.
Why is this battery case better than others you may ask? Well for one it’s made by Apple, and people will buy it for that reason alone. Users will be able to swipe down in the notifications centre to see the battery levels for the iPhone and Smart Battery rather than relying on a button/LED’s on the case itself.
When charging the case there’s a battery indicator on the lock screen that tells you how much charge the iPhone battery and the external battery have, and unlike most battery cases available today, this one is charged via Apple’s standard Lightning cable.
The case is currently only available for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S and costs £79.99. There is no word whether the company will be releasing a version for the iPhone 6 Plus or 6S Plus, or customers using the iPhone 5, 5S and older devices.