Of all the battery cases I’ve seen for iPhones, Apple’s very own Smart Battery Case was the boldest one.
Apple’s Smart Battery Case was One of a Kind and Never Happened Again for the Latest iPhones
Apple is a company that embraces imperfection, or just makes bold design choices no one else would.
The Smart Battery Case is a prime example of that. Instead of hiding the battery in the case itself, Apple simply made a bulge at the back and embraced it.
Not just once, but several times – all the way up till the iPhone 11 lineup.
The first Smart Battery Case was released for the iPhone 6 and 6s back in 2015, and it was the strangest thing buyers had ever seen. However, it was the best choice, too.
It had all the smarts you’d expect from an Apple-designed accessory. For example, it had passthrough charging capabilities and eventually wireless charging was added to the mix with the iPhone XS lineup.
Just like the MagSafe Battery Pack, once you plugged your iPhone into the Smart Battery Case, you were able to see the battery percentage of the case in the Batteries widget in iOS.
There was no on or off button either. You plug the iPhone in, and it would smartly charge it when needed. In fact, it would first drain the battery of the case, then the iPhone.
In iPhone models that ditched the headphone jack, you could just plug your Lightning EarPods into the Lightning port at the bottom and listen to audio normally.
The promise of the Battery Case was simple: take you to the end of the day with extra battery remaining. This means you got almost 50% more battery on a smartphone like the iPhone 11. That’s a big deal.
Apple released the last Battery Case in 2019 for the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, and hasn’t made a new one since then.
I know we live in a world of fast wired and wireless charging, but an accessory like the Smart Battery Case was tackling two problems at the same time – ensuring protection and extending battery life.
Given how powerful iPhones have become, a product like the Smart Battery Case makes perfect sense, especially for those who don’t want to be tethered to a cable or magnetic accessories.
Realistically speaking, Apple will probably not make the case again. But it was definitely a weird and wonderful one.
