Ample charge and storage make iPhone battery case a clear winner [Reviews]

By

This great battery case has power, style and extra storage.
This great battery case has power, style and extra storage.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Best List: Kuner iPhone battery case by KUKE

Even Apple admits that its powerful iPhones need a little extra battery boost from time to time. But if you’ve taken a look at the $99 devices, you might not be super convinced they’re worth the price, or even all that attractive.

The Kuner iPhone battery case really kicks the Smart Battery case’s butt: it’s thinner, prettier to look at, and even gives you extra storage space for videos, music and documents. Take that, Apple Smart Battery case.

This post contains affiliate links. Cult of Mac may earn a commission when you use our links to buy items.

The Kuner case is almost 4 mm thinner than Apple’s offering, and it doesn’t have that fugly bump on the back. The test case I received is a bright white glossy affair with a black rubber bumper around the edges for drop protection. The Sleep/Wake and Volume buttons both get a chrome cover, and the mute switch, headphone jack and speakers all have cutouts that work great — no need for an adapter for headphones, either.

There’s a button on the back that shows me the charge level of the case with one press; holding the button down starts the juice flowing to my iPhone 6 Plus.

With 2400 mAh of juice, this slim powerhouse charges up my iPhone to about 80 percent on an empty tank, and the battery inside the case charges up quickly and easily thanks to the lightning port on the bottom. The only niggling thing, and it’s likely due to licensing, is how the port only charges the iPhone and Kuner case; there’s no pass-through audio, for example.

With the freely downloadable KUKE app, I’m able to track my iPhone’s battery level as well as that of the Kuner case. The app also gives me access to the extra storage space (it comes in 16 or 64 GB versions), letting me pull in Photos, Videos, “Musics” and Documents for backup or to keep my iPhone’s internal storage free of clutter. The Musics player will play audio files, too, which lets you keep them in the external case’s storage area and play them without having to move them back onto your iPhone.

The 16 GB Kuner iPhone battery case retails for $79, $20 less than Apple’s Smart Battery case, is thinner and offers external storage via a downloadable app. It’s a great deal thinner, too, and doesn’t have the bump to bug you.

Buy from: Amazon

KUKE provided Cult of Mac with a review unit for this article. Learn about more lust-worthy products.

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.