Okay, let’s talk about this iPhone SE battery case thing. My trusty little SE, I really like the size, fits perfectly in my hand, you know? But man, the battery started draining like crazy. Especially after a couple of years. I’d be out, maybe mid-afternoon, and boom, scrambling for a charger. It got really annoying, seriously.
Figuring Out a Fix
So, I figured I had to do something. Carrying a power bank and cable all the time? Nah, too much fuss, always forgetting one piece or the other. I started looking into battery cases. Seemed like the neatest solution, just snap it on and forget it. Well, mostly forget it.
Went online, looked around. Lots of options, different brands, different prices. Some looked super cheap, probably wouldn’t last. Others were pricey. I wasn’t looking to spend a fortune on a case for an older phone, you know? I just needed something functional. Read a few comments here and there, mostly people complaining about the bulk or the weight. Yeah, figured that was part of the deal.
Ended up picking one that looked decent enough, wasn’t the cheapest, wasn’t the most expensive. Kind of a middle-ground choice. Clicked buy, hoped for the best.
Getting and Using the Thing
It arrived a few days later. Simple packaging, nothing fancy. Pulled it out. Felt… okay. Definitely added some heft, no surprise there. Plastic felt sturdy enough. Had that little button on the back with lights to show the case’s charge level. Simple.
Snapping the phone in was easy. Just slide it onto the connector at the bottom, push the top part down. Fit snugly. Plugged it in using my regular lightning cable to charge both the case and the phone overnight. That was handy, didn’t need a separate cable for the case itself.
Using it day-to-day was straightforward. Phone battery gets low, press the button on the back of the case, and it starts charging the phone. Pretty simple. It definitely made the phone feel like a brick, though. Noticeably heavier and thicker in my pocket. Jeans felt tighter.
Here’s what I noticed living with it:
- It absolutely got me through the whole day, sometimes even part of the next. No more battery anxiety, which was the main goal. Big win there.
- Protection seemed decent. I accidentally dropped the phone once (not from high up, thankfully), and the case took the impact. Phone was fine.
- Charging the phone through the case seemed a bit slower than plugging the phone directly into the wall. Not drastically, but noticeable.
- The pass-through charging using the lightning port was convenient for charging, but it meant accessing the port for anything else (like data transfer sometimes) required going through the case. Not a huge issue for me on the SE, since it still has a headphone jack, but something to consider.
- Holding it took some getting used to. The smooth plastic wasn’t super grippy, and the extra bulk changed how I held the phone.
So, Was It Worth It?
Yeah, I guess so. It solved the biggest problem I had: the terrible battery life. It turned my phone back into a reliable all-day device. But it’s a trade-off, for sure. The added weight and bulk are real. You definitely lose that slim, lightweight feel of the SE.
It’s not perfect. Sometimes I take it off when I know I’ll be near chargers all day, just to get that nice small phone feel back. But for days when I know I’ll be out and about, relying heavily on my phone? Yeah, the case goes on. It does its job. It’s a practical tool, not some magic bullet. Better than juggling a power bank and cable, in my book anyway. That’s my experience with it.