The introduction of the iPhone 4 spurned a huge new market for cases, and by now there must be millions of different styles, shapes and colours available to suit almost every iPhone owner. We’d like to think we’ve seen them all, but sometimes a new idea catches our eye. The PowerCase Classic is one such example.
Whereas iPhone cases tend to fall into a strict category – pouches, folio cases, hard covers, novelty cases, etc. – this one squeezes into several. With a flip-down soft leather front and matching back the case mimics a flip case, but there’s more to it than that. Your iPhone 4 or 4S slots into the case to make connection to a 30 pin dock at the bottom, with a tough plastic bumper frame to protect the edges of the phone.
Why is there a dock connection? Hidden away inside the case is a rechargeable battery which keeps your iPhone juiced up beyond its internal battery’s capacity. Battery cases tend to be pretty bulky, so we were impressed at how sleek the case was overall, with little added to the iPhone all round. Once slotted in to the case you’ve got the option to turn the case’s battery supply on or off using a small button. Hold it down for 3 seconds and an LED will flash to indicate power is active and flowing through to juice up your phone.
Although the case doesn’t give you access to your iPhone’s dock connector, when you hook up a charger to the micro USB socket on the case the iPhone will charge fully first, followed by the battery that’s hidden inside the case. You’ll also be able to sync your iPhone with iTunes without the need to remove the case, simply by connecting a micro USB cable to the case and then your PC or Mac.
The case’s battery is a decent size at 1,450 mAh and adds up to 7 hours talktime, 6 hours internet surfing, 10 hours video playback, 40 hours audio playback and up to 300 additional hours of standby time. In practice the case effectively doubled our iPhone’s battery life, which is something that’s always welcome.
PowerCase’s Classic case provides a great deal of protection all round for the iPhone 4 and 4S, with the thick bumper keeping the metal band around the edge of the phone scratch-free and the soft-touch padded material keeping the screen and rear glass panel from any damage with ease.
Overall the case feels very well made and is a great option for protection outright, and that’s before you take into account it gives your iPhone a second battery. The extra charge comes in very handy and on busy days it will see you through until bedtime, and with light usage you can squeeze two days out of your iPhone with the case fitted.
The Classic case is available now from powercases.co.uk and we can exclusively offer our readers an amazing 50% off. Simply head over to the Powercases website and choose your case, then use the code ‘TMTI40’ at the checkout to half the price!
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