We’ve all had this collective freakout: You need a get a hold of someone or find directions back home but then your iPhone dies.
Luckily, you don’t ever have to go through that ever again as long as you have an external battery case for your iPhone. But which one is right for you? This week on The iPhone Show, we test three of the latest iPhone battery cases: Apple’s Smart Battery Case, Mophie’s Juice Pack Reserve, and Kuke’s Smart Case.
If you have an iPhone 6 or 6s, Apple makes a premium battery case for $99. Apple’s Smart Battery Case has enough juice to keep your iPhone charged for 18 hours of Internet use. And yes, you’ll be able to get over the hump–especially when you realize that the hump actually makes it easier to slide your iPhone in and out.
For a more affordable option (or if you need a battery case for an older iPhone model), look to Mophie. The company’s Juice Pack Reserve, for example, is $60 ( $57 on Amazon) and keeps your iPhone running for 16 hours. The one caveat is that it is not compatible with the Lightning connector, so you’re going to need to bring a separate charger if you travel with it.
Then there’s the Kuke case. This smart case is actually thinner than Apple’s case, but has a longer-lasting battery. Kuke has a 2400mAh battery pack, compared to Apple’s 1877mAh and Mophie’s 1840mAh. The best thing about the Kuke case, however, is that it also has an external memory pack, adding 16GB or 64GB of additional storage to your iPhone (definitely a life-saver if you own a 16GB iPhone). Plus, it has a Lightning port. The only drawback is that it was somewhat difficult to take the iPhone out of this case. It actually made me wish it had a hump. You can pre-order a Kuke case for iPhone 6s or 6s Plus starting at $69 for the 16GB version.
Watch the video above to learn more about these three iPhone battery cases and find out which one’s the right for you.