I used to be an avid reviewer of portable battery banks because of their unique design aspects. Some would have flashlights, others could start a car, and there was even a couple that could charge a smartphone seven times over.
However, as the reviews continued on, I began to notice that once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. You can still find them on Tech Support Forum, but battery banks aren’t quite nearly as exciting as a new smartphone review or similar product.
While I may have slowed down the reviews on battery banks, there are a few new products that catch my attention. Something that is new and exciting, something I haven’t tried before.
On a lot of my older battery bank reviews, I would find that the units were typically larger, heavier, and unless you had a backpack or purse, they weren’t as practical to carry around. In some cases, it was just as easy to carry a charging cable and wall USB brick than a battery bank.
Portability is the key essential of any smartphone. Manufacturers are looking to get bigger in size while maintaining thinner and lighter profiles. What this means for the consumer is a nicer looking phone, but at the cost of their battery life.
With the Apple iPhone being a phone without a removable battery, if your battery begins to drop into the red zone, you may be without cell phone usage for quite a while and in today’s world, that’s something many of us can’t let happen.
An Amazon seller, by the brand name, Romoss, reached out to have me check out their latest Encase iPhone case charger. By hugging the phone like a phone case, you can now maintain full portability while almost doubling your everyday iPhone battery life.
Welcome to my review of the Romoss Encase iPhone charger. Throughout this review, I will be covering the following: the design, functionality, and my final thoughts.
Design
Calling the Romoss Encase a battery bank would be correct, but give the wrong picture. A battery bank to most of us is a portable backup battery that can connect to a mobile device and is a totally separate device. These hard-cased batteries sacrifice their own battery for your phone.
Instead, the Encase is an actual case that connects to your iPhone as any normal, everyday, case. Made from a plastic and silicone mix, my unit supports the iPhone 6s Plus with other options supporting everything up to the new iPhone 7 Plus.
The iPhone is held quite firmly inside the case with no amount of movement inside the case. As I will discuss further down, it does an excellent job of protecting the phone.
When you purchase an iPhone from Apple, you get a selection of multiple colors. From red to blue, it would be a shame if your new Encase did not match your stylish iPhone color as well. Luckily, it can with a plethora of colors.
Gray, White, Pink, Red, and Blue are your color selection choices, with each model having a lighter hue around the edges and the center of the case being darker. You can see that in my gray version of the case.
For a physical tour of the Encase, there isn’t much to cover. On the rear, you will find the four white LEDs to indicate the Encase’s battery percentage and a button to turn on the case. Then, in the front, where the phone slips into, there is a one-way lightning jack.
I say the term “one-way” because the case only has electrical contact pins on one side of the lightning jack. Unless something is wrong with your iPhone’s lightning port, this shouldn’t be a problem.
Romoss did a decent job at keeping the Encase as thin and as light as possible. You need to remember that this case is strapping on a 2,800 mAh battery to the back of your phone. That’s a lot easier said than done.
The case adds an additional 68 grams to the iPhone’s 143 grams. As for additional thickness, Romoss shows it changing the original 7.3mm thickness to 13mm. Not a massive change on either side, but do note that there is a new noticeable bump on the rear.
With the case installed, all ports, buttons, and cameras have plenty of room to be used and I never felt like it was difficult to press any button or use a standard feature on the iPhone. Even Apple Pay continued to work.
Functionality
When the case arrived in my mailbox, I was very curious to see how Romoss intended for the user to charge the case. Would the case use a microUSB cable? Making it so all of your accessories for Apple no longer work?
Fortunately, they did not use a microUSB connector or USB-C and went with the intended lightning cable.
The next question I immediately thought of is how does recharging work? I figured the case should first charge your iPhone, then begin to charge the case’s battery. This would make the most logical sense for those who may use one case for their daily activities and then swap to the Encase when their phone battery gets low.
Hybrid Sync is the charging method the Encase uses where it charged both items at once. That wouldn’t sound half bad if it wasn’t for the 1A input of the Encase. This means your iPhone will charge with 0.5A.
Recharging times take a few hours at best. I was able to get the case charged on its own in under five hours, with the iPhone connected, this extended the time to eight hours. It’s not the fastest recharger and it’s a massive downer for the case.
A positive to the recent negative, the Encase does nearly double the iPhone’s battery life. I was able to extend into two days of normal usage with the Encase connected. Not bad on one charge!
Furthermore, the case has an on/off button allowing you to choose when the iPhone should begin to receive a charge. If you barely use the Encase’s battery, then it should last you a little over two weeks before self-discharging over time.
Seeing that the Encase is a case that will replace your existing iPhone case, it most certainly needs to live up to the expectations of other phone cases. Its strong silicone base and hard rear shell do offer a fair rating in drop protection, more so than other silicone cases on the market.
That said, it also has a front facing lip around the phone. When placing the phone on a flat surface, the screen will be slightly raised which should help prevent any screen scratching.
Lastly, the Encase does have one more trick up its sleeve or should I say behind its back cover. Built into the rear is a magnetic mounting pad for car magnetic mounts. The case itself it not magnetic, but can allow magnetic holders to hold onto it. Perfect for those long car rides where the GPS is always running.
My Final Thoughts
For only $25 on Amazon, the Romoss Encase is an excellent way to extend the non-removable battery inside of any iPhone. The 2800mAh battery capacity holds a strong charge, recharges your iPhone quickly, and it does all of this while keeping your phone secured in a moderately tough case. The hybrid charging feature may not be the quickest method of recharging, but it gains some points back for the lightning cable add-in. Anybody who’s always low on their battery life should seriously consider the Encase instead of an additional battery bank.
Buy it now:
PROMOTION — 10% discount exclusively for your readers:
Code: ROMOSS05
Start time: 05/02/2017 6:00 AM
End time: 05/08/2017 11:59 PM
© 2017 Justin Vendette
1 Comment
Thanks for the post. The review is really helping.