Apple Launches Official $99 Battery Enhancing Case for iPhone 6s

[Narcaz]

Someone definitely dropped the ball in the accessory design department this year. Watch stand, iPP Keyboard and now this timeless masterpiece. This case could easily play the lead role in the reenactment of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

 

[WRX-SRQ]

Who designed this case, an intern? My god, I can't believe that case came out of Apple's headquarters. What is going on in there? Hase Ive just given up?

 

[OneMike]

Battery life is fine for me. The issue is it takes too long too charge. Faster charging would be better imo although obviously you can change that now.

 

[Quu]

Well this was certainly unexpected.

Looks terrible with that unusual bulge, should really have filled out the entire back in my opinion.

 

[violaboy]

What drives me crazy about ANY battery case is the adapter/dongle that you have to use to make the headphones fit properly.

Looks like there is a bezel at the bottom to accommodate the lightning port. This is required for battery cases, but I wonder if this one comes with an adapter like the Otterbox battery case or if a headphone jack will fit up through it.

 

[blackcrayon]

That's kinda unexpected... Seems that whole thinness thing may be reaching the end soon.

Or maybe this is proof that it will not be reaching its end soon. They can keep making phones thinner and thinner, and just offer first party battery cases to those that want the option of thickening up...

 

[sshambles]

I literally face-palmed when I saw this.

Apple: knows there's a problem with lack of battery power and makes ugly battery pack case instead of fixing the source of the problem - creating products thinner than the last year and sacrificing battery size to do so.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

And apple subtly admits the iPhone 6 and 6s battery life is not what users want.

No it just wants to cash in on the extended battery pack market that has existed ever since the original Mophie. But it does make you wonder why they are piddling with these penny ante (to Apple's bottom line) accessories when clearly Apple engineers could be better used in its main product departments. Seems like everything new out of Apple recently is either a new accessory or a slight update or derivative of a pre-existing product.

 

[EllieV]

I actually checked the date to make sure it wasn't April 1st.

It is in fact, December.

 

[mike301]

Is it April Fool's Day already? Not a fan of the design.

 

[9367942]

To me it de-values the product. It's like they are admitting: 'Our phones batteries suck' implying that the customer has to buy an external accessory to make it ideal.

 

[Voytech]

April fools. Must be. Or a money grab. $99 is a lot. Not a lot for apple, but considering you can get a charging case for easily a third of that... They saw Mophie and others making bank on these and decided to get some cash too.

Let's design a sub par product (internal battery capacity) and then make more money by supplementing it with an accessory. Watch them say how wonderful they are by giving users the "choice".

I feel so meh about this.

 

[manu chao]

And apple subtly admits the iPhone 6 and 6s battery life is not what users want.

How often did I have to charge my iPhone before I went to bed during the last year? Maybe a dozen times. How often while not at home? A handful of times.

 

[Defederiki]

What is? The ugliest case in the earth?

 

[AirunJae]

This appears to be, to me, a part of Apple’s strategy for Business. They’re making it for their most common model, in gray and white, it makes their devices last longer for jobs that need it, and the hump (I would imagine) will make the iPhone easier to hold.

 

[Kebabselector]

'Unapologetically Ugly'

 

[iTom17]

Looks like an iPhone that has swallowed an old ipod touch

I laughed way to hard at this.


Don't like the case at all. The idea is great (apart from the fact that Apple subtly admits that battery life of the iPhone 6/6s isn't that perfect), but that design... No, this ain't good at all.

And not that it's really necessary by the way. Sure, there are phones with better battery life, but my iPhone 6s does the job fine. I charge it every night after all, so I don't see a reason to have such a battery case.

 

[Aston441]

Is this the only way to get an external battery that charges with the lightning port and not microUSB?

 

[navaira]

And I thought that charging dock was ugly.

Ive must have really retired as some rumours said.

 

[2457282]

Early april's fools? I can't believe this...

And apple subtly admits the iPhone 6 and 6s battery life is not what users want.

It's all about personal use case. In my case, I don't use the phone to the point that I need to charge it throughout the day. It charges at night while I sleep and otherwise works fine. Others use the heck out of their phone and have to charge it all the time - for them, this is an option. Given that the price is competitive with other charging case, this looks like a great thing to up-sell when someone is in the Apple Store getting a phone. "Hey you need a case". "Oh, this case will give you extra juice and is made by Apple just like the phone." Sold.

 

[manu chao]

To me it de-values the product. It's like they are admitting: 'Our phones batteries are shi.t' implying that the customer has to buy an external accessory to make it ideal.

On a normal day, my battery capacity might be down to 50% when I go to bed. But if I run GPS constantly, I can probably kill it in six hours. No matter how large the built-in battery is, there will always be situations where it isn't large enough. Your idea of ideal is: large enough for your needs. That's a very self-centered definition of 'ideal'.

 

[wol]

What will they come up with next?

(my money is on a lead-accu strap-on for the wrist to power the iWatch for 48hr continuously, which doubles as an "iBiceps" training device)

 

[Maclver]

Ummm where is the one for the 6S Plus?

 

[McFreggle]

It's the most un-Apple-like product Apple has ever released.

 

[balzz]

How did this design make it to production?!?!?