There are dozens and dozens of case offerings for the iPhone these days. Options for external batteries are growing as well. What to choose? If you are me, you get what's cheap and try to look for reputable brand names. That's why the Energizer name immediately caught my attention. They have always had a good name in batteries and when I seen a sale price of $19.99 from original $79.99, that was enough for me to give it a try.
Product Features
- Pass-Through USB: Charge and sync your iPhone 3G & 3G S to iTunes without removing it from the iPower via the included USB cable
- Charging: You can use the included USB cable to charge the iPower and iPhone simultaneously or just charge the iPower.
- Intelligent Power Distribution: Smart Battery Technology instructs the iPhone to always drain out the iPower first. When you're done with the iPower, simply detach it and you still have a fully charged iPhone.
- Safety First: The iPower utilizes advanced rechargeable lithium-polymer battery cell technology for added safety. Built-in circuitry prevents the iPower from shorting
- LED Battery Status Indicator: The integrated LED status indicator tells you how much power is left in your iPower. Simply press the test button and it will tell you how much power is left.
Why the need for a battery? I tend to use my iPhone a large part of the day. I am either using it for streaming music, playing music, checking news feeds, texting, camera, games and sometimes as a phone lol. So, if I didn't carry my sync cable, I often found myself running out of power before the end of the work day. So, it became an issue of finding a spare USB slot or AC slot to plug the iPhone in and charge as well as remembering to carry the sync cable. I considered buying another sync cable... around $15-$20 but doesn't solve the lack of input locations. So, $20 for the case and battery seemed very reasonable. It would give me longer battery life plus another cable for charging allowing me to leave sync cable at home. So, how did it work when I got it?
First observation, it obviously makes the phone more bulky to carry and heavier but gives you a little sense of protection at same time. On the plus side, it is solid construction and curved for a very nice feel in hand. It looks nice on the phone, almost sexy dare I say. I have the black color iPhone 3GS and it matched the black color of the case nicely.
Battery use. I feel it probably did double my battery life on the iPhone. After a couple of weeks of use, I now find I can go a whole day on a single charge of 100% on the iPhone battery and the Energizer case battery at 100%. I get home with usually more than 50% and just under 20% by night. Its nice not having to worry about charging it over the course of a day or running out to my car to use car charger on my lunch break. Hey, I was desperate for tunes for the rest of the day and forgot the sync cable, ok? lol.
A nice feature of the case is its ability to display its charge level by a flashing blue LED meter. It will inform you how much charge is left in the case and let you know its fully charged by a solid light and no flashing. To see the battery level, just press a small button on corner of the case.
Now for the cons. First, it does leave the top open and exposed. The case is not really best for protective means considering this and fully open screen area. It did protect my phone in a waist-height drop one day, however. The phone fell to the sidewalk in haste while holding a DSLR in other hand. iPhone took small scuff to top corner of back but worked fine. I think the case absorbed some of the impact. Hey, it was drop the phone or the camera that is twice a valuable... sorry iPhone.
Also, it says it works with iPhone 3G/3GS. The thing is, the 3GS is slightly thinner than 3G. Its a very small difference but it can be an issue. The 3GS tends to slide out of the case fairly easily sometimes. It doesn't fit as snug as a 3G is likely to fit. Its tolerable but, after losing the phone to a small drop when falling out of case, I have decided I will likely add a piece of thick tape etc. to inside of case to make fit more snug.
Another complaint. Sometimes it will quit charging the iPhone battery if iPhone battery is already at 100%. Possibly this is protection for the iPhone battery so not to over charge it. I first assumed it was due to poor connection with the sync terminal because the act of sliding the iPhone out of case and back in would initiate the charging again but now I feel this is just battery protection since it doesn't quit charging if iPhone battery is less than 100% and Energizer case still has a charge. Its a bit of an annoyance but tolerable in my opinion.
And lastly, my computer sometimes refuses to sync with the iPhone when its in the case and using the provided USB cable. It sometimes tells me its not compatible but the unit charges no problem. Sometimes it works fine and will sync.
So overall, I really like this case/battery. I misplaced the case in my home for a bit recently and doing without made realize how much I missed it. Without it, I had to limit my gaming and music streaming which really drains the battery. Now that I found the case again, I no longer need to worry about things like that and my iPhone doesn't seem so naked. If I were to give this a rating, I would say it would be a 4 out of 5 stars. Very good product with a little room for improvement. I say 4 rather than 3 because I find it extremely useful despite its drawbacks.
First observation, it obviously makes the phone more bulky to carry and heavier but gives you a little sense of protection at same time. On the plus side, it is solid construction and curved for a very nice feel in hand. It looks nice on the phone, almost sexy dare I say. I have the black color iPhone 3GS and it matched the black color of the case nicely.
Battery use. I feel it probably did double my battery life on the iPhone. After a couple of weeks of use, I now find I can go a whole day on a single charge of 100% on the iPhone battery and the Energizer case battery at 100%. I get home with usually more than 50% and just under 20% by night. Its nice not having to worry about charging it over the course of a day or running out to my car to use car charger on my lunch break. Hey, I was desperate for tunes for the rest of the day and forgot the sync cable, ok? lol.
A nice feature of the case is its ability to display its charge level by a flashing blue LED meter. It will inform you how much charge is left in the case and let you know its fully charged by a solid light and no flashing. To see the battery level, just press a small button on corner of the case.
Now for the cons. First, it does leave the top open and exposed. The case is not really best for protective means considering this and fully open screen area. It did protect my phone in a waist-height drop one day, however. The phone fell to the sidewalk in haste while holding a DSLR in other hand. iPhone took small scuff to top corner of back but worked fine. I think the case absorbed some of the impact. Hey, it was drop the phone or the camera that is twice a valuable... sorry iPhone.
Also, it says it works with iPhone 3G/3GS. The thing is, the 3GS is slightly thinner than 3G. Its a very small difference but it can be an issue. The 3GS tends to slide out of the case fairly easily sometimes. It doesn't fit as snug as a 3G is likely to fit. Its tolerable but, after losing the phone to a small drop when falling out of case, I have decided I will likely add a piece of thick tape etc. to inside of case to make fit more snug.
Another complaint. Sometimes it will quit charging the iPhone battery if iPhone battery is already at 100%. Possibly this is protection for the iPhone battery so not to over charge it. I first assumed it was due to poor connection with the sync terminal because the act of sliding the iPhone out of case and back in would initiate the charging again but now I feel this is just battery protection since it doesn't quit charging if iPhone battery is less than 100% and Energizer case still has a charge. Its a bit of an annoyance but tolerable in my opinion.
And lastly, my computer sometimes refuses to sync with the iPhone when its in the case and using the provided USB cable. It sometimes tells me its not compatible but the unit charges no problem. Sometimes it works fine and will sync.
So overall, I really like this case/battery. I misplaced the case in my home for a bit recently and doing without made realize how much I missed it. Without it, I had to limit my gaming and music streaming which really drains the battery. Now that I found the case again, I no longer need to worry about things like that and my iPhone doesn't seem so naked. If I were to give this a rating, I would say it would be a 4 out of 5 stars. Very good product with a little room for improvement. I say 4 rather than 3 because I find it extremely useful despite its drawbacks.
