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iPhone 4/4S Battery Case Wrap-Up
We spend quite a lot of time away from outlets/USB ports. We also chug data
like cheap, watery beer. The two combined result in a red battery meter by midday — clearly not an acceptable scenario. While battery packs certainly
make the mobile lifestyle more bearable, battery cases make it bearable and convenient.
That said, we’ve come to be quite the battery case aficionados here at Gadgetsteria, building an ever-growing database of iPhone battery case
reviews/data over the last 12-18 months. Looking back at it all, it’s become apparent that some type of round-up is needed so you the reader can more quickly compare and contrast the various cases we’ve spent some time with. So, here it goes…
Powerskin 2000
As one of our earlier case reviews, the (at the time) massively large 2,000 mAh battery was a worthy talking point. It was, and still is, on the high side as far as battery cases go. Charge times (both charging the phone and charging the case) are “average” in our book, taking roughly two and a half hours for the phone and two and a half to three hours for the case.
Oddly enough, while the Powerskin’s 2,000 mAh battery is considerably
larger than the iPhone 4S’ 1,420 mAh internal pack, it rarely gets our
phone higher than 90-95% — something to consider.
Performance is the Powerskin 2000′s claim to fame, design and feeling-in-the-hand are not. For starters, the Powerskin is very brickish in shape with lightly contoured edges that really do make it feel pretty large. More annoying, however, is the ultra-soft rubber finish. It’s too sticky in our opinion, meaning pocket lint and other dirt/dust will adhere to the case easily. Weekly cleaning is something you’re going to want to think about.
$79.99 is a tad much in our book considering it doesn’t come with any
extras. Still, it’s a decent battery case.
More: Full Powerskin review
Incipio offGRID
Switching gears from the larger-than-life Powerskin above, Incipio’s offGRID feels downright tiny in comparison. Instead of going for a full 0-100% goal, Incipio instead chose to cater more towards providing an extra bump in daily battery life while still keeping the case relatively thin and lightweight. Spoiler: They succeeded.
The offGRID is by far one of the thinnest battery cases on the market. Not only that, it is also one of the most comfortable to hold and use in our book. In fact, in many instances we’d say the offGRID makes our iPhone more comfortable to hold/use for extended periods. Whereas Powerskin took a soft touch, rubber-ish approach, Incipio instead choose to leave the offGRID’s plastic exposed, albeit painted over (obviously) to look better to the users’ eye.
The 1,450 mAh battery is just barely bigger than the iPhone 4S’ 1,420 mAh
internal battery, and as such, will only recharge your phone in the range of ~50-70%. Considering the much smaller footprint, we think Incipio did a
damn fine job with the offGRID in both design and functionality. Re-charge time for the offGRID itself is between two and two and a half hours.
The only gripe we have with the offGRID is the price — $69.99. In this
instance you’re not paying solely for battery power (as it is lower than its competitors). You’re paying for a modest bump in battery life along with a well designed and more pocket-friendly case.
More: Incipio
offGRID full review
Incipio offGRID Pro
At CES 2012 we stumbled into Incipio’s booth and were ecstatic (really) to find a new offGRID Pro prototype floating around. At the time it was confined to a glass box, unable to be poked or prodded. But our waiting (and persistance) finally paid off this spring when a shiny, new offGRID Pro showed up at our doorstep. So what has Incipio done to make it better?
Design wise the offGRID Pro looks very similar to the original offGRID with the exception of how the case is actually held together. Whereas the original offGRID was a slider type case, the offGRID Pro features a more unique two-piece bumper + slider design. Slide your phone into the bottom/back piece of the phone and then wrap the bumper piece aground the phone and bottom/back piece of case to hold it all together. Are only gripe with this design is it is a bit difficult to get a part, though, nothing a sharp object can’t help.
But there similarities end there. For starters, the internal battery is larger — 1,600 mAh instead of 1,450 mAh. But Incipio went above and beyond by including a second 1,600 mAh battery as the batteries are now easily removable. On top of that, Incipio included a standalone micro-USB battery charger to keep the second battery charged at all times for quick,
hot-swapping action.
Performance from the 1,600 mAh battery is a bit better than the offGRID’s
smaller 1,450 mAh battery; we have seen 1% recharges go as high as 75%. (In the original review we noted ~71% as the max. Additional usage/testing has netted a few extra percentage points.) But again, while the offGRID Pro isn’t the runtime-doubling, ultra marathon case we were hoping an offGRID successor would be, we are completely head over heels for this case.
The batteries, when inside the case or via external charger, take about two and a half hours to re-charge. (See a pattern here…?)
While we had some reservations about Incipio’s pricing of the original offGRID, we really aren’t too surprised or discouraged by the offGRID Pro’s higher $100 price tag. When you look at everything you get — the case, 2x
1,600 mAh batteries and stand alone charger for the second battery — the
value is made readily apparent.
Despite all of the changes in design and mAh capacity, Incipio still managed to keep the case pretty much identical in size (read: it’s still, in our opinion, the best combination of mAh power and size/comfort) as the original offGRID. Job well done we say.
More: Incipio
offGRID Pro full review
BoostCase
The BoostCase is another CES contestant. Before CES: Unveiled, we hadn’t heard of BoostCase. But after spotting a few on display, we immediately knew we had to try them out. The overall design which incorporated additional colors besides your typical black/white case colors was a very welcome change, as was the slide-and-twist nature of the two-piece case design. (This design, mind you, also allows swapping of case colors for customization’s sake.)
The 1,900 mAh battery inside the BoostCase got us back up to 75%-85% with our max test netting an 88% charge when charged from a save-me-now (says the battery) 1% charge. The BoostCase itself, like most other cases, takes about two and a half hours to fully recharge itself. Also, while the 1,900 mAh battery is on the large side, the BoostCase engineers did a pretty good job of making it not feel like a brick. Kudos.
One thing we noticed with the BoostCase in particular is that the charging LED lights on the back of the case could be a bit sporadic. Sometimes as soon as 20 minutes after turning on a fully charged case we’d see the 4 LEDs decrease to 2, and then ~15 minutes later drop to 1. That 1 LED would then stay lit for the next hour and a half while the case completely discharged. Our iPhone would still get a full (as much as the case would provide) charge. It’s just that the case was not properly registering its own charge.
$79.95 is a pretty fair price in our book for the fresh design and swappable color plates, not to mention the upper-tier 1,900 mAh battery.
More: BoostCase
full review
Phonesuit Elite
The Phonesuit Elite is a self-proclaimed “fastest” charging iPhone battery case. And in our hands-on testing we found that statement to generally hold true. Average 1-95/97% charge times were as low as one hour and 27 minutes. Getting the additional few percentage points up to 100% could take up to an additional 20-40 minutes, however. Still, the Phonesuit Elite’s 2,100 mAh, class-leading battery is one of the few that can actually get your iPhone to 100%. In fact, the Phonesuit Elite can actually take you back up to 100% and then dump another ~10-30% charge back into your phone.
The class-leading mAh rating means a bigger battery which in turn means a
thicker case. Despite being 100 mAh larger than the Powerskin case above,
we actually found the Phonesuit Elite felt (and looked) smaller thanks to more contoured edges. Bonus: Powerskin made the soft touch coating far less sticky than Powerskin did meaning no pocket fuzzies mucking up your phone.
At $79.99, those looking for purely the best performance money can by will be surprised to find it priced at only $79.99. If size/weight isn’t as big of a concern for you, this is the case to look at.
More: Phonesuit
Elite full review
Spyder i4
The newest addition to our battery case collection is Spyder’s i4 2,000 mAh case. Physically it isn’t all that impressive. Though, we do like the two-piece slider design and included second top piece. It makes loosing the
slide-off top piece less of a concern. We also really like the re-charge performance of ~90%. However, the real talking point with the i4 is the
included, matching dock covered in the same matte black, soft touch finish. The dock is pretty basic — you plug it into a micro-USB cable and then sit your phone inside the dock. But we love being able to pop our phone on and off the dock exponentially more than fumbling around with USB cables any day of the week.
Like the Phonesuit Elite, the soft touch finish is not sticky at all, and should combat fuzz/dust rather well in the long run. Also (like the Phonesuit Elite), the designers of the Spyder i4 took comfort and usability into consideration as the sides and overall case shape are contoured enough to mask the case’s true size and and weight. It too escapes feeling like a simple battery brick like the Powerskin.
$89.99 for near-100% re-charges and a sweet included dock make the i4 a top
contender in our book.
More: Spyder i4 full review
The Wrap-up
While we highly suggest you check out each review above to find out more
about each respective case, we can pretty easily narrow the results above
down into three solid choices (though all of them are worthy).
- Small yet powerful: Incipio offGRID/Pro (either
are a good choice considering the size)
- Ultimate runtime: Phonesuit Elite
- Added functionality: Spyder i4
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