Yes, Apple launched a new battery case for iPhone 6s today, and yes, it’s butt-ugly.
All battery cases are, but because this one has an Apple logo on it, the Internet is getting all bent out of shape over just how ugly it is. There’s one thing nobody is mentioning, though: You don’t have to buy one if you don’t like it — and no one really cares what you think.
To put it bluntly, it’s not easy to polish a turd. Some things are inherently ugly, and not even Apple and Jony Ive can make them look good. Battery cases — which make your otherwise slim and slender smartphone fat and heavy in an instant — are one of those things.
No matter how much you tweet about it, blog about it, or cry about it while looking longingly at photographs of Steve Jobs and remembering the good times, when battery cases like these would have been a laughing stock at Apple design meetings, that’s not going to change.
Complaining won’t change the position of the Lightning port on the Mighty Mouse 2, the way in which you charge Apple Pencil, or the embarrassing mess that is the iPhone 5c case, either.
Battery cases are practical. Battery life on the iPhone 6s isn’t great, and if you’re a heavy user, chances are you rarely get through a full day without having to top up at least once. With that being the case, the Apple Store probably sells a lot of them. It’s no surprise Apple would want a piece of that pie.
It is somewhat ironic that Cupertino would consistently sacrifice battery life in an effort to make the iPhone thinner every year, then release a case that makes the iPhone fatter to give us that extra battery life we so crave. But Apple didn’t do this on purpose just to make more money. Apple won’t make the iPhone 7’s battery life poor on purpose, just so you’ll buy a $99 battery case with your upgrade.
Maybe it’ll get you a retweet, but bitching about the iPhone battery case on Twitter won’t hurt Apple. The company will sell a ton of these to people who need battery cases, and none of them care what you think.
If you hate the Smart Battery Case, just don’t buy one. But please, shut up about it.
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
46 responses to “Hate Apple’s new iPhone battery case? Don’t buy it”
I’m not a fan of the design, but I ordered one for two reasons: first, it’s a great convenience to have a lightning port. I can carry a single cable in my pocket and I’m good to go.
Secondly, the passive antenna is of great interest to me. I work in a building that doesn’t get much signal despite being less than 150 yards from a major tower. I know that for the most part it’s not going to do much, but even getting an extra bar of LTE is a huge deal to me – I get 1 bar at my desk right next to a window.
I’m also kind of intrigued by the passive nature of it – no activation, it just stays on till it dies.
Either way, not everyones cup of tea, but interesting enough for me to give it a go.
The other battery cases simply convert you to a microusb cable, in which case you can still just use one cable. Unless you’re taking the case off and only using it at certain times. do people do that?
Couldn’t agree with the author, more!
‘Fires fail for lack of fuel’ – the irony of writing a post telling people to stop taking about it.
He says stop complaining for nothing, just don’t buy it.
I totally agree. No battery case is nice looking. They are fat and heavy. Apple’s looks kinda odd, but what is the problem? It has some great features that other battery cases, including Mophie, doesn’t have.
I will say though, that Apple’s designs on non-iPad and iPhones has been spotty as of late. You would think that they could find a more elegant way to do a battery case, but then, what do I know?
The only reason it has extra features is because they control the software. Mophie cannot make changes to the OS to allow this kind of functionality. In many ways it’s anticompetitive.
They decided to put their Apple logo on ugly. They own that.
If you don’t want us complaining about it, why have so many articles on it here? Especially since the tone of the articles is negative.
I don’t think its fair for you to attack people just for having an opinion. Yes its true no one said I had to buy one, but I also never said I was going to! I feel like this article was a slap in the face just because I don’t like the way something looks.
Awww, poor princess.
Did someone put a gun to their head and make them go into the ugly battery case business??? We will complain. You will read this.
Umm, I worried that Apple has lost it. They haven’t come out with truly insane products compared to what else is on the market, they have “nice” products, but nothing that special and I’m worried that they lost their edge. I don’t plan on buying and Windows or Android product, but for the first time, I would be hard pressed to at least check them out if I was a new computer user or someone that wanted the best specs. For the premium that Apple charges, they should have better spec’d products.
Look at the Magic Mouse, putting the connector on the back was the dumbest idea. I prefer to just keep on using my older Magic Mouse with the Mobee rechargeable battery that’s also wireless. I also prefer to use the older wireless keyboard and trackpad because, again, I can use the Mobee wireless charging batteries and recharge up to three devices with the Magic Feet. Also, Mobee has wireless recharging cases for the 6/6S and 5/5S, so again, there are better solutions out there.
As far as complaining about a particular design? What’s wrong with that? It allows people to vent their frustrations? Are you afraid that it will curtail or reduce sales? I am not the only person that’s frustrated with what Apple’s been releasing lately.
I checked out the iPad Pro and had mixed feelings on it. I thought the Pencil could have been better than it was, even though it’s better than other products, I think it could have EASILY been better. I think IOS looks sparse on the iPad Pro and they need to deal with that.
I still don’t think the Apple TV is there yet. It’s too difficult to navigate around and the remote kinda sucks. It took me way to long to figure out the Apple TV and navigating through the UI.
They haven’t brought out new SkyLake processor based computers like everyone else is doing. They STILL don’t have a really nice i7 based headless unit since the lower end MacPros aren’t selling that well a lot of them are just building their own i7 unit that fast and sticking OS X on a Hackintosh system.
I was at the Apple Store yesterday and it wasn’t packed like it usually is during Christmas. I just get a sense that Apple has been complacent and instead of directing their energy towards kicking ass and coming out with compelling products, they are wasting WAY too much time/money on pushing the Apple Music, which isn’t going to ever be a major part of their revenue/profit stream, and Tim is wasting too much energy and time on the things that don’t generate revenue/profits. Jony Ive seems like he would rather talk to the media instead of heading up product design. Maybe he’s bored and the products reflect that. They have become complacent. That’s MY opinion. I certainly hope 2016 brings some compelling products and they become less stale.
While i do eventually want to buy an Apple Watch, I’m passing on the first release.
Though I appreciate your sentiment, I do not think that is the case. I do not have the same feelings either. I think Apple just does what Apple usually does. They don’t go around announce everything inside their lab. Design is like beauty, it’s on the eye of the beholder. Not everyone appreciate the same things. Sometimes you like it, sometimes you don’t. It does not mean the guy next to you feel the same.
Get a SP4 and be happy! Plus a Lumia 640 that is what I have. Paid $809 for the SP4m3 and $29 for the 640..escape APPL its a declining tragedy in action.
Face it APPL is so 2007 its 2015 wake up.
Microsoft. That’s a joke. How many iterations of the surface pro have they lost money on? All. Have you owned one? I have. It’s not very good as a laptop and horrid as a tablet.
Wow did you have RT? LOL..waht a fanboi. Surface just kicked iPad ass and Android ass.
Your default cry = fanboi. How cliche. And wrong. You my friend arte an uninformed zealot who spends entirely too much time ranting in an article that is out of your ecosystem. Get a life. Oh, FYI it was the surface pro 3. It was horrid. The only one that has just begun to sell is the 4. The first three gen. were considered flops. So rant away on a dedicated apple web site, and you tell me who sounds like the person with an issue.
Wow, you do spend a ton of time in apple articles. Guessing you get paid. Rant away Mr. Bot
I find the appletv’s ui east and agreeable. The addition of the Siri search is a fantastic tool. With voice I can search for content across Hulu, Apple iTunes, Netflix and HBO with more on the way. This alone is Brilliant . Taking the time to read and fully utilize a tool is always helpful
Agree with you that if you don’t like, don’t buy it. Totally disagree with the assumption that Apple didn’t do this on purpose. Yes, they may not have set out with the idea in mind to use a poor performing battery in the 6s just so they can sell a case. But they very intentionally chose to use the battery in the 6s knowing that it would barely get through the day. They weren’t forced to do this, they chose to do this (like so many other handset makers). They know virtually everyone would prefer a slightly fatter phone with a solid battery vs. a slightly thiner phone with a battery that can’t make it through the day. It’s all very calculated to get people buy new phones every year or two. And while the battery case may not have been the motivation behind the battery they chose for the 6s, you can bet Apple loves the money grab that will come from selling this case.
U guys complained too
If you are sick of hearing everyone bitch then why post and solicit everyone’s opinion? BTW, Apple has become so greedy that they will now put an Apple logo on ANYTHING to make a few extra bucks, irrespective of poor design. (Still a fan of my IPhone and iPad, though!)
Apple had spread itself too thin in the beginning. Printers, computers etc.. It was a jack of all trades and master of none. One of the first things Steve did when he came back was to drop almost all the other lines and focus on only a few. You may have a point. The battery is a bit much. Like maps app fiasco, there are so many more better and more experienced options out there.
Biased author. Hate this stupid looking battery, and yes, dislike Apple more. Always felt Ive was not actually as great as he is perceived. They have the layering battery cell tech from the new macbook that they could have used to create a nice back, similar to the original iPad. But nooo… On this very exact day Google, a company I never respected for their Industrial design or UX (but do respect it for their tech) launched Pixel C…. WOW!
The Pixel C? Seriously? You think that is innovative?
Seriously yes. Clean looking, aluminium body, seamless/laptop style keyboard integration with very quick separation for tablet/”desktop” mode. I mean look at iPad Pro with it’s keyboard…
I’m (still) an apple fan, own MBA, MBP, Imac and mac mini, iPhone 6 and iPad air 1 but can’t seem not to notice they are no longer as focused as they used to be and that the competition is slowly reaching and outpacing them.
You do realize Microsoft Surface has been doing it even better than that for 3 years now.
I love the internet. Nobodys like Serban Veres can go online and claim that Jon Ive is overrated. Awesome!
The Pixel C… Pass
I don’t plan on buying one. But what pisses me off about it is that Apple constantly says that they won’t make anything unless there’s a need for it and they can improve the technology. This does none of that, for twice the price and it’s ugly as fuc*. Lately, it’s almost like they’re just putting crap out there because people buy stuff with the Apple logo on it.
And by the way, all of these complaints made national news.
Familiar fatty
Hate people complaining about about the iPhone case? Don’t listen to them or read their articles. So simple!
My Sophie looks way better
That’s thick too^
A better battery inside would have been the way to go for 6s
Yes it’s thick as well but better looking than a growth on the back like Apples. However it has its drawbacks like no lightening connection, and all wish for a stronger battery “inside”.
You really think this looks better? Yikes.
Yes. And it gives me a little more than double the battery juice while being usable with one hand and still slipping into my front pocket.
If I’m not going to buy it, it doesn’t mean I can’t complain about it
Don’t like what people saying about the new case? Don’t read it. Did someone put a gun to your head?
By your logic, no one should be talking/ asking / questioning anything about iPhone because millions will be sold anyways. See the irony?
Cult of Mac, sure is pretty awesome at most of the times. But for Loki’s sake, please stop your rants about “what you believe” people should say or do.
And yes, I know. If I don’t like the article, I don’t have to read it. I sure hope though that’s not the attitude that cult of Mac team or editors go about their business.
I keep thinking of a python that ate a whole sheep.
Now that was funny. Now that you said that its all I can see. *giggle*
Boy you are desperate
easy breeze. if you dont like it.. dont buy it… there…
just going to put this out there… i love the case, the only battery case thats clever enough that actually still makes the phone look relatively slim by not rounding the back which is what i hated about my mophie on my 5s which is why I’ve never bought one for every iPhone after that
“There’s one thing nobody is mentioning, though: You don’t have to buy one if you don’t like it — and no one really cares what you think…..If you hate the Smart Battery Case, just don’t buy one. But please, shut up about it.”
Really? Just wow. And you really think people care what YOU think? You have as much right to create a glowing review of an apple product as I have of writing a scathing review. How about you allow people their opinion and right to voice it without having to insult the? Because in the end, that’s what its about. My right to voice my opinion, that YOU do not have to read. So if you want us to shut up, how about you not reading those comments your clamoring for people to shut up about? Seems quite simple to me.