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Because it’s better designed, aesthetically and functionally. It shows a battery icon in iOS and the silicone material feels premium compared to cheaper cases. Since it’s a hump that doesn’t consume the entire backside of your phone, it’s also probably lighter too. It also supports wireless charging and of course it has the Apple logo, which some will laugh at, but its a touch that I can certainly appreciate.

For those that don’t care about these “niceties”, by all means go for the cheaper alternatives and be happy, but personally I would still pay more for the Apple battery case myself because I do care about those little things.

Is it?

The aesthetics are very subjective. The weird hump is less pronounced on the Mophies, they are made of soft touch polycarbonate and certainly don't feel cheap, they charge wirelessly aswell.
 
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Yea the apple battery cases really do act like an extended battery for the phone. They report their charge level in iOS as well. The charging and discharging is automatically managed instead of having to turn on the charging like on third party cases. The problem with waiting until your internal battery draining before switching on the external battery is that it uses up a charge cycle on the internal battery. If you can keep the internal battery close to full for longer then you can extended its useful service life.

+1. Folks are comparing this new smart case to the Mophie case which behaves nothing like this. The Mophie is a glorified battery that can be wirelessly charged and always wirelessly charges the iPhone's battery. This wear and tear on the phone battery is avoided by this new smart case.

I understand the knee-jerk reactions to price because, hey, this is macrumors, but try to understand what the product can do or can't do before bashing it. If you still think the product is overpriced, at least it's an informed decision. Right now, there is no battery case that I know of (other than Apple's previous smart cases) that can do what Apple's new case can do. If there is, please inform.
 
Those cases look AWESOME! I had Apple's Smart Battery Case for my iPhone 7...you really need to own one to realize how great it is! Charging with Lightning, view charge for phone and case on screen...

My concern is the lower speaker looks blocked on these new cases. My iPhone 7 case had holes that fired the sound forward. These new cases are nice in that they don't increase the length of the phone like the older ones did...but if the sound is blocked that's gonna be a dealbreaker for me.

I was looking at the pictures. I don't think they're blocked, I think it just doesn't show. My bet are the speaker cutouts exist and that the lighting port you see is actually set back from the phone itself and not perfectly aligned with the bottom, I'm guessing this is how they did away with the chin.
 
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Why not make a slightly thicker iphone and call it the XS Max Battery Plus? Then sell a special case for it. $$

Actually it's pretty cool if you need the extra battery life but I think that's a slim market. Even so, I'd like to charge it wireless with my watch and airpods. How do I do that?
 
I looked at those. Two objections: 1)micro usb charging to the case, although it is Qi supported. 2) it leaves the bottom of the phone exposed.
Micro usb alone is a deal breaker.
Edit for clarification: the juice pack acces uses usb c, the juice pack air uses micro usb.
Lol, I would rather pay $10 more for the official Apple case, that's for sure.

I'm just responding to the OP's statement of overpriced compared to what. By definition, my answer was $10 cheaper and therefore answers his statement. Irregardless (not a real word) of the quality, connectors, colors, or design I did prove his statement as written. Have a great day!
 
$129 BWAHAHA they must be smoking crack

Im sorry, Im an Apple fan and owned every iPhone since the 3GS but they've lost touch with reality in recent years.
Just curious, what do you think Apple should have charged for it?
 
It looks nice! I was going to wait for Mophie, but I think this will be better on the internal battery. I could be wrong, just my thinking.

I’m just hoping the white can stay relatively clean.
 
It looks nice! I was going to wait for Mophie, but I think this will be better on the internal battery. I could be wrong, just my thinking.

I’m just hoping the white can stay relatively clean.
It looks nice! I was going to wait for Mophie, but I think this will be better on the internal battery. I could be wrong, just my thinking.

I’m just hoping the white can stay relatively clean.

I was going to wait on the mophie as well but the first party integration and the fact that this supports usb c PD sold me. Not to mention its available now.
 
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Why not make a slightly thicker iphone and call it the XS Max Battery Plus? Then sell a special case for it. $$

Actually it's pretty cool if you need the extra battery life but I think that's a slim market. Even so, I'd like to charge it wireless with my watch and airpods. How do I do that?

They’ve been making the phone slightly thicker every year for the past few years. We just use our phones more.
 
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