Anyone getting the newly announced XS/MAX/XR Battery Case?

big samm said:
Something weird happened this morning... Had the case on all night and my iPhone’s battery was discharged, but the Smart battery case was at 100%
Found that very weird... Checked again this afternoon and Smart battery case is still at 100% and the phone battery is still discharged... Anyone ever had this problem before?
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No issues like this at all with my unit.
 
The only “weird” moment I’ve had with the case was when it was on 1% it sent my phone crazy as if I was constantly plugging in and taking out my charger. I took the case off and put it back on and the issue stopped, haven’t experienced it since. I think someone a few pages back was experiencing the same problem I had but it was constant.
 
Minarets said:
Most getting the black one? I would prefer the black but my gray 6s one, once the case broke in after a bit, the lint thing went away buy the fingerprints showed like crazy.
The oils on the hands I assume, eventually break down the surface of the case. Because when it was a lint magnet, i had no fingerprints. When the lint went away the case was shinier and showed lots of fingerprints.

For those reason, I’d prefer the white as I don’t think fingerprints would show thru but does it show everyday dirt and blue jeans dye?
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True but have you seen how fast the white one gets dirty?? That's the reason why I didn't get the white one. I have the Gold XS Max and I'm pretty sure that the white one would look better butttt can't deal with the dirt.
 
Finally got it for my Xs. First job of a case is to protect your phone and I feel like this will be very protective for everything but a faceplant. The front lip protection is very minimal, I use the OtterBox Defender which has amazing front lip protection. Case feels great in the hands, very ergonomic (the battery hump actually helps here) and very grippy. It looks and feels great. I'll see about the battery life as I use it. I travel a lot for work so I'll put it to the test for sure.

Not sure if I'll us3 this daily or just when I travel because I do love the OtterBox.
 
Currently travelling with the case and I love it. Normally when roaming, the phone’s battery is sucked dry. With the case I unplug it around 7am, and after heavy use, my case is depleted by 11pm and my XS is still at 100%.
Well worth it.
 
First day using it I got 11 hours out of the case. Took it off charger at 5am and it lasted until 4pm with heavy use. I would think after a few charge and discharge cycles this may vary.
 
I’m having issues charging this with my wired chargers. On my belkin wireless charger all is fine. But any type of wired charger I use it drains the case battery rather than charging it.
 
RamGuy said:
I'm pleasantly surprised by the Apple Smart Battery Case for my iPhone Xs Max. It's not like I need the additional battery life for my day-to-day usage. My iPhone Xs Max will normally last for two days without issue unless I'm having some additional screen time on it above my normal daily usage.

Still I wanted to test the Smart Battery Case just to get a feel for it. I have never had any Apple Smart Battery Cases in the past as they only got released for the smaller model and I have always been on the Plus/Max size since they got introduced with the iPhone 6 generation of iPhone's.

It pretty much acts and feels just like a Apple Silicon Case. Which is a good thing, the Apple Silicon Cases are great and has always been. I tend to prefer them over the Leather one's just because of that awesome grip and the more vibrant colours they tend to offer compared to the Leather Cases. Their major drawback has always been and continues to be lint and dust. The Apple Silicon is just a magnet for lint and dust, it's crazy.

Sadly the Smart Battery Cases only comes in boring White and Black "colours". You loose the awesome vibrant colours that the Silicon Cases tend to offer as Apple keep only providing the Smart Battery Cases in non-colours in White and Black which saddens me.


But after using the Smart Battery Case for a few days and throughout the Weekend I have to say I do like it. It sure is fat, the lower portion looks and feel like a Tank. There is no denying it. But the new design has one HUGE improvement over the previous one for the iPhone 7 (I got one for my wife, which she ended up returning) and that's how it no longer extends at the bottom of the phone. My iPhone Xs Max end up feeling thicker and heavier, but it does not feel larger which is a massive improvement. The iPhone Xs Max is big enough as it is, and the new "edge-to-edge" display/design of the iPhone X and Xs would make an extended underbelly/lip look and feel horrible. So this new design is such a huge improvement overall.

But it does add a bunch to the weight, it almost feels like my iPhone Xs Max is weighing double with the Smart Battery Case on it. And the thickness at the bottom is almost twice as fat compared to not having a case. The weight doesn't really bother me, it actually makes the device feel more sturdy and solid.

That extra thickness is what I thought would put me off, but after using it doesn't really bother me. The way the battery and the "fatness" stops about 3/4 up the back of my iPhone Xs Max makes my grip feels much more natural and improved as my the phone itself is just too big for my hands to hold it in one hand naturally but with this edge that I can hold onto I feel that holding it with one hand feel so much more natural to me. It actually feels better than holding my iPhone Xs Max using the Apple Leather Case and Apple Silicon Case which ended up surprising me.

Battery life on the case seems decent. I can normally go through the day only on the case itself. It's not close to lasting as long as the iPhone Xs Max battery, I tend to have 50-60% at the end of my day without the case and with the case I will normally end up being at 5-15% on the case at the end of the day. But that isn't bad for what it is, being able to go through a normal day of use without even tapping into the phone's battery is great.

I do miss some additional information within iOS regarding the case. There is no information under Battery Health which feels like a huge oversight at this point. I see no reason why the Smart Battery Case should not show up under battery health? It doesn't integrated with the Battery Status / Reporting either, so it will just report you being on 100% battery level all the time instead of taking the Smart Battery Case and it's battery levels into account at all, degrading the usefulness of the battery reporting under Settings a lot.

I also hate how you MUST use the battery widget to figure out the battery level of the Smart Battery Case. You can't see it on the lock screen, you can't see it when you pull down from the top-right or anything. The only time you can see it's current battery level and indication on whether it's charging or not (important when using a wireless charger as you might put your phone on a wireless charger and only charge your iPhone and not the battery case unless you put it the correct location/orientation) is for a split-second when connecting it to power and using the battery widget in the widget drop-down menu. This needs to get improved.



My question is; how does this affect my iPhone Xs Max battery and it's battery health? From what I have gathered the Apple Smart Battery Cases are integrated and communicating with iOS making sure that your phone is acting smarter as compared to other battery case. Other battery cases works just like power banks, they trick your iPhone into believing it's connected to a charger.

This isn't all that great as iOS will do a bunch of power hungry things in a "connected to power, power state" like synchronising iCloud Music Library, iCloud Photos Library, updating apps (if you have auto-update turned on) etc.. This will result in battery cases and power banks not being as efficient as your iPhone will drain much more battery and start doing task you would not normally do when not connected to a actual power outlet.

It does seem like the Apple Smart Battery Case is indeed communicating with iOS here as I can verify that neither of these things that will happen automatically when I connect my iPhone Xs Max to a power outlet, a power bank or put in on my wireless charger happens when plugging it into the Smart Battery Case. It will only start synchronising iCloud Music Library, iCloud Photos Library and updating apps when I put my iPhone Xs Max with the Smart Battery Case onto my wireless charger or plug it into a power outlet.

But the battery icon on my iPhone Xs Max do seem to indicate that my battery is being "charged" when the Smart Battery Case has battery left on it. I'm not entirely sure what this actually means and what go get from it. Does this mean that the Smart Battery Case keeps providing my iPhone Xs Max with a constant stream of power reducing the health of my battery? Or is it simply Apple's way of showing and indicating that my Smart Battery Case still has battery left on it so I don't need to worry about my iPhone's battery starting to deplete anytime soon?

Does it behave intelligently, disabling the use of the internal battery completely while the Smart Battery Case is connected and with charge left on it or does it continuously charge and strain the internal battery while you have the Smart Battery Case connected?
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I can tell you this, I used the battery case for about 10 days on my XS before returning. Before and while using the case my battery health was always 100%. After I returned the case a day later I checked and it dropped down to 95%!
Thats unbelievable to me. The phone is only 5 month old. The battery case definitely affected the battery health. So beware.

CC
 
cc999 said:
I can tell you this, I used the battery case for about 10 days on my XS before returning. Before and while using the case my battery health was always 100%. After I returned the case a day later I checked and it dropped down to 95%!
Thats unbelievable to me. The phone is only 5 month old. The battery case definitely affected the battery health. So beware.

CC
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I was wondering if the battery case would affect the battery percentage in some form. I’m going to upgrade my X to the XS Max in a few weeks and I was thinking of buying the battery case since I will need it to help deliver mail and keep my iPhone charged up. I think I’m going to wait a few months before I buy the battery case now.
 
cc999 said:
I can tell you this, I used the battery case for about 10 days on my XS before returning. Before and while using the case my battery health was always 100%. After I returned the case a day later I checked and it dropped down to 95%!
Thats unbelievable to me. The phone is only 5 month old. The battery case definitely affected the battery health. So beware.

CC
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I have left my last 3? iPhones on chargers for most of their lives. 6+, 6s+, 8+, and now my Xs Max - though because of the battery on that thing, it spends a lot of time unplugged. But my other phones spent probably 90% of the day plugged in and it didn't affect their health. I have a hard time believing that being plugged in for a short time would have a 5% detriment. Use coconutbattery to concur?
 
Is it normal for my wireless charger to be giving about 1% a min with the charging case and phone together? Yet any wired charging doesn’t charge the case and actually drains my battery ?
 
Has anyone noticed that their case doesn't sit flush on tables? It appears that the back of the case has a slight hump in the middle which makes operating on a flat surface quite frustrating.

Wondering if this is a standalone issue or something others have been experiencing?

Thanks,
Brett
 
cc999 said:
I can tell you this, I used the battery case for about 10 days on my XS before returning. Before and while using the case my battery health was always 100%. After I returned the case a day later I checked and it dropped down to 95%!
Thats unbelievable to me. The phone is only 5 month old. The battery case definitely affected the battery health. So beware.

CC
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Weird I use my battery case a ton since launch day on a XS Max and take it off allot for days at a time and my battery health is still at 100% peak performance capacity. Sorry you had some issues that does suck
 
Just took my case off for the first time in about a month and I’m amazed how thin the iPhone is. It’s actually quite amazing how quick you adjust to the size of the case. The iPhone seems too thin! We take these things for granted.
 
gmanist1000 said:
Just took my case off for the first time in about a month and I’m amazed how thin the iPhone is. It’s actually quite amazing how quick you adjust to the size of the case. The iPhone seems too thin! We take these things for granted.
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My wife’s XR earlier felt super thin and lite. Ha.

BTW, if I took mine off and only used it when I really needed it I might not need it a lot. The XS Max does have a good battery. So I just leave it on full time.
 
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I’ve had mine for about a week and it works as it should. My issue is I’m having trouble justifying owing it. I very rarely am able to deplete the case battery and though I can get through 2 days of use before I need to charge, is that good? I’m guessing it stresses the battery on the case to have it go from full to empty repeatedly. Yesterday I took it off and plugged it in and used my phone without it. I didn’t charge my phone overnight and had about 60% charge this morning. What I noticed is when I put the case on my phone at about 7:30 am, It showed the case was at 100% and my phone was at 60%. As of this posting at 1:55 PM, I’m showing 1% charge left in the case and 100% phone charge. Not sure what that means but it drained quite quickly vs. going from 100% on both devices.
 
I sold my XR case on ebay got it free from Apple, someone got a good bargain $79aud below retail with shipping. I can get 2 days out of my XR so it's not needed, also too fat and heavy for my liking.
 
Cladster said:
I sold my XR case on ebay got it free from Apple, someone got a good bargain $79aud below retail with shipping. I can get 2 days out of my XR so it's not needed, also too fat and heavy for my liking.
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How were you able to get the case for free from Apple? Curious because I’m in Aus as well.

I’m happy with the case on my XR. My only wish is that Apple opted to make normal silicone XR cases so then I can easily swap between the two and not have the battery case on 24/7.

I’ve got the Apple clear case for the XR and I hate how hard it is to put on and take off. Feels like I’m about to bend the actual phone sometimes.
 
Got mines about a week ago. I love how it works. With it making your iPhone battery basically the backup battery. I kinda thought it was going to let my phone battery drain til about 80% then recharge it.. and repeat.. but I like this way.
The case honestly lasts me til about 4pm. And that’s with me taking it off the charger at 6-7am. I also think the case could last longer. My phone has been restoring from iCloud for about week. (400gigs worth of data to download).
Sometimes I do feel like it’s a little big, but i get used to it and enjoy the weight other times.
But like someone said earlier.. it’s hard to justify the price. Especially when you have other external battery packs laying around.
 
I don’t use mine at work because I have access to a plug, but I do use it when I’m doing yard work 3 days a week, weather permitting. I watch endless YouTube videos on gardening, while I work. That’s when this battery case comes in real handy for me.
 
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