I provide honest ratings and reviews on tech, toys, and consumer home goods that I've purchased and used. Reviews are based on hands-on testing and personal observations. All opinions and comments are my own.
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Takeaway: Longer battery life and drop protection without a lot of bulk. The case is a two piece hard-shell plastic with a one-third, two-thirds split. At first I thought this case would have trouble staying together, being a two piece case that simply slides apart, but I was happy to find that it holds together well when putting it in and taking it out of my pocket. It even takes a little effort to pull apart.
The entire case is coated in a soft feel matte rubber. It provides a decent grip and somewhat resists fingerprints. The cutouts for all the buttons and the camera were precise and not too large or small. The back of the case has a kickstand that allows you to view your phone handsfree in landscape mode for videos and movie playback. The case weighs 1.5 oz on its own and 5.5oz with the iPhone. It charges using a Lightning connector style plug on the bottom. Note that it didn't come with a charging cable and you'll need to use the one that came with your iPhone.
The case takes about 2 hours to charge and you will get at least one full charge for your iPhone with the 3500mAh battery. You can use your phone while it is charging in the case, however, your battery may drain faster than it is being charged. You can stop the charging to your phone at any time by pressing and holding the power button on the back of the case. If you plug the case in while your phone is charging in it, your phone will charge up fully before the backup battery begins charging.
Inserting your phone in the case is straightforward and easy. In terms of protection, the rubber absorbs some of the shock from bumps and drops. The battery acts as an additional layer of protection. Like many cases, be aware that there's no there's no protection on the front for the screen (there's no recession ridge). Also, this case covers the rounded edges of the phone so if you have an edge to edge screen protector that also covers the edges, this case may not fit your phone at all, or the screen protector may become dislodged.
The volume buttons are somewhat inhibited by the case because they are deeper and harder to reach once the phone is in the case. You might also need a separate headphone jack extension cord to access the headphone port as some accessories's headphone jacks may not be long enough to reach the port through the case. Note that the sound comes out of the front of this case, rather than the bottom as it would on the phone itself.
Overall this case provides a decent amount of protection for the back and sides of your phone while giving you the benefit of the kickstand and double battery life without adding a lot of weight.
