Incipio’s offGRID Backup Battery Case provides an excellent way to keep your iPhone 6 powered up over multiple days.
Incipio’s taken a rather unusual step with the offGRID Express Backup Battery Case. Most battery cases tend to slots into which phones slide with a simple cap at the top, but instead the offGRID Express Backup Battery Case comprises two parts. There’s the main battery section, which like pretty much every other battery case, is a heavy chunk of Lithium Ion batteries, a Lightning connector at the base and a MicroUSB port at the base for actual charging.
Annoyingly, the offGRID Express Backup Battery Case continues the trend for a headphone hole with a supplied adaptor, rather than providing a proper passthrough. This means you’ve got to bring the passthrough cable with you whenever using the offGRID Express Backup Battery Case if you’re using cabled headphones.
Where the offGRID Express Backup Battery Case differs slightly is in the fact that it uses a bumper style side case that actually holds the iPhone 6 in place. This is nice in that it’s easier to clip on and off if you don’t want or need a bulky iPhone all the time, but the small downside is that it’s going to provide slightly less protection than a “full” integrated case might. There’s a simple gap for the mute/lock switch, with buttons provided for power and volume that work quite well.
The offGRID Express Backup Battery Case packs in a 3000mAh battery, placing it neatly inbetween (by way of example) the Mophie Juice Pack (2750mAh) and Mophie Juice Pack Plus (3300mAh) products. That’s still well over the iPhone 6’s 2750mAh battery rating, which means that in a straight line you could expect to easily double your iPhone’s battery life when nestled in the offGRID Express Backup Battery Case.
The offGRID Express Backup Battery Case indicates battery charge at the front with a series of lights that you can check at any time with a tap of the button on the lower right hand side. A longer press activates the battery and charges the iPhone within. There’s no particular fancy rapid charging at play here, but using the offGRID Express Backup Battery Case, I’ve managed to stretch a relatively heavily used iPhone into up to three days of overall usage, which is no mean feat.
Running out of battery power sucks, and while there’s some promise in the battery extending features of iOS 9 (*Cough* SonyAndSamsungWereThereFirst *Wheeze*), a battery case can still be a worthwhile buy. At an RRP of $119.95, while it’s not the fanciest battery case you can buy, it’s a solid investment at a competitive price.