Apple’s own Smart Battery Cases for its phones are among the best available, in part because you can learn how much juice the case has left straight from the battery widget in your iPhone’s Notification Center. As with all things Apple, these cases are quite pricey, but today Amazon is selling the iPhone XR (in white), iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max models for $102 each, down from the original retail price of $129. This is a match of the lowest price we’ve seen for these cases, but we haven’t seen it selling at this price for the XS and XS Max for a couple of months.
This price is especially happy news if you have an iPhone XR—which Apple is still selling, unlike the XS—as it takes that phone’s already impressive battery life and pushes it to crazy extremes. With this case, you can expect 39 hours of talk time and over 21 hours of internet use on the XR.
This model also charges wirelessly, and you never have to worry about taking it off to charge it: The battery case is essentially becomes a part of your phone. You can even charge the case and the phone simultaneously if you use a Qi-compatible wireless charger for the case while plugging in a Lightning cable into the port.
Unfortunately, it also makes Apple’s famously slim phones rather bulky. On the bright side, the case features Apple’s wonderfully grippy silicone it uses for its non-battery cases, although I have my doubts as to whether it will still look nice after a year.
This isn’t a case I’d personally want to lug around every day, but if you find your work or hobbies often put you in conditions where even the XR’s already phenomenal battery life isn’t enough, this is a smart buy.
Author: Leif Johnson, Contributing Writer
Leif is a San Francisco-based tech journalist. He's a big fan of fantasy RPGs, and you can find his previous work on IGN, Rolling Stone, VICE, PC Gamer, Playboy, Mac|Life, TechRadar, and numerous other publications.