Each year the iconic Apple iPhone is unveiled as being thinner and better than the iPhone from the year before, and each year more people grow more aware that perhaps having the thinnest phone isn’t the most important thing after all, because by making the phone thinner there is a sacrifice that has to be made in exchange: the size of the battery.

Today, Apple has given us good news: They hear us, and they have the answer to our problem. If you feel like your iPhone 6s doesn’t have sufficient battery life, you can now purchase your very own Apple-branded Smart Battery case for your iPhone 6s! This case can extend the life of your iPhone up to 25 hours extra, and it looks… awful.

It does. It looks terrible. It looks like the extended battery case that I had for my HTC EVO, which did do its job by making the phone last far longer than it did without, but the design was far from ideal. Both have a weird square that juts out awkwardly from the back, which is hardly the elegant style that Apple usually strives for in the iPhone.

Aside from its looks, though, by releasing a battery case it would seem that Apple concedes to the idea that the iPhone might actually need a battery life boost.  While a battery pack is a solution, I don’t think it’s necessarily the right one. I strongly feel that the best way to go about this is to simply stop focusing on making the iPhone as thin as a piece of paper, and to place more focus on its performance. I’m not saying that the iPhone shouldn’t be thin – but it has reached a point where making it any thinner is pointless, and even adding a sliver of thickness for a bigger battery wouldn’t kill its image.

25 hours of extra battery life is really nice, but I think most iPhone users would be happier if the phone was a little thicker and offered even a fraction of that. 5 to 8 hours of extra battery life that’s already integrated would be much more convenient than purchasing an additional battery pack, and everybody would be able to benefit from it. And to be fair, I think that the battery case does have its place. I know a lot of people would be happier with 25 hours of extra life with a battery case, but I think most people just wanted a modest bump that was already included in the purchase of the already pricey iPhone.

I do wonder what the new Smart Battery case means for the future of the iPhone. Is this Apple’s new solution for those who feel that the iPhone doesn’t carry sufficient battery life, or is this just a temporary solution until the next iPhone comes out?

There are already rumors that suggest the next generation iPhone will scrap the 3.5mm headphone jack in favor of a Lightning port headphone jack, which many have guessed would be implemented in part so that the iPhone 7 could be the thinnest iPhone ever. The introduction of the Smart Battery case now makes me think that Apple has no intention of increasing the iPhone’s battery capacity by way of increased thickness; instead, this may very well be the solution until something like thin graphene batteries come into play.

I don’t see Apple’s Smart Battery case being a huge success for Apple. I also don’t think there’s any reason to hope for a thicker iPhone anytime soon, although I think that it would be the best way to improve battery life at this point. I think the best case scenario is that Apple might redesign its extended battery case for the iPhone 7.

Readers, what are your thoughts on Apple’s new “Smart Battery” case? Let us know in the comments below!