One month living with Apple’s $129 iPhone Smart Battery case

When the iPhone 11 came out, I knew I had to get my hands on one as soon as possible. Some people may find this unnecessary as I had an iPhone X before that, but I don’t care what you say, the iPhone 11 is a wicked piece of kit.

I had a Smart Battery case on my iPhone X (which was actually for the XS but works on the X too) and loved it. I had it on all the time and would never think of putting a normal case on it instead. The battery life was phenomenal and it didn’t add a huge amount of weight. It was perfect for me.

So, when I bought the 11, I knew I had to get the Smart Battery case for that too. At the time of purchase back in October, Apple had not released a battery case for the 11 so I patiently waited until they brought it out in late December.

However, when it came out I had been using my 11 for a few months and had absolutely no issues with the battery life at all. I have never experienced an iPhone with a battery as good as this one. So, I waited a few months and in March I decided to pull the trigger as I was curious as to how much better I could make my already great battery life.

After dropping a painful $129 on one, I had high hopes for it, but I know it would be good as I enjoyed the one on my previous phone so much. When it arrived and I tried it on my phone I noticed that this was far heavy than I had anticipated. I know the iPhone 11 was heavier than the X but you don’t realise just how much heavier until you put a case on which weighs almost the same as it.

This made my user experience very uncomfortable. It almost hurt my fingers it was that heavy. I don’t normally find Apple products a bore, but this was too much for me. It also was a far larger size than my iPhone X with the battery case so fitting it in pockets was more difficult.

But aside from this, the battery life is unbelievable with the case on. Apple claims it will give your iPhone an extra 50% battery life and I certainly think this is the case. I found myself not needed to charge my phone for two days at a time which was pretty neat. And even when I did come to charge my phone, the case supports wireless charging, so I just plonk it on the charger and leave it.

Whilst I’m on the subject of charging, it takes agesssss to charge. I found myself waiting so long for it to charge due to the bigger volume of batteries of course. But, I guess that’s just the price you pay unless you have a fast charger which I do not.

Another gripe I have about this case is the colour. I know this is completely my fault for being a fool and buying a white one but I thought it would match my white iPhone well. It does, but it also gets grubby extremely fast.

While that is a pain, I won’t let that bog me down as the camera button on the side makes up for it. All you need to do is long-press it and the camera opens, even when the phone is asleep. It works great and means you will never miss a funny pet moment or food fail…the two things I take photos of.

So with all that’s said and done, would I recommend this case to you? Well, the reason I wrote a lot of this article talking in the past tense is that I don’t use the case anymore. As great as it is, it’s just too heavy for my everyday use and the battery is fine without it. Yes, I will use it again when the battery starts to deteriorate or when I travel/spend the whole day away from a charger but for now, I will use my ‘naked’ phone like any normal phone without the aid of a battery.

I think if you’re someone who spends a lot of time working away from a desk or travels a lot then this is perfect. It will keep your battery at 100% for as long as you need it to without damaging the battery but for someone like me who is almost always near a charger, it isn’t needed.