A year ago, I picked up a battery case for my iPhone. A friend of mine was getting rid of his (going with a different model), so I decided to give it a shot. I've never really had any battery issues before (knock on wood), but I figured why not. I'd give it a shot, see if it would be nice to be able to play even more of my favorite mobile games without having to worry about that battery life.
That case didn't last very long. I won't try to diminish the returns with it, though. The idea of having an extra battery on hand, even just to give me another hour's worth of playtime with a game, or keep things going for a night out is fantastic. In the end, it wasn't so much that I didn't needthe case --which I really didn't-- it was the fact I'm not really a fan of cases in general.
Add those things together and I ended up putting it in a drawer before giving it to another friend.
I haven't thought about an external battery since then, just because it's one accessory that isn't on my radar at all. But, in the last week, I've seen two different people using an external battery -- but not a battery case. An actual external battery pack, connected by a cable, to their phone. In both instances I was in a restaurant.
The first the person simply walked in the front door, battery pack connected to their phone. The second person I saw already at their table, with the phone set off to the side, being charged by the pack.
In both cases, I can't help but think that's pretty genius. In the first scenario, the person appeared to be topping off their phone even before they sat down at the table, and, maybe they disconnected the pack from their phone when they sat down, topped up or nearly there. The second case is a little bit more up-in-the-air for me, because the phone was out there, taking up space, but so was this external battery pack.
In my case, I'm not sure that I want to bring around with me another thing to carry around, even if it will give me extra battery life. But I can see the appeal, and it's not like these accessories are huge. (Some of them are, though, which is unfortunate.) If you don't like cases, maybe an external battery pack like one of these is worth a look?
And that's what I wanted to ask you. I want to know if you use one of these external battery packs to keep your phone ready to go, or if you prefer a case. If you don't use one now, have you ever tried one? Let me know!
