iKit’s soon to be released NuCharge battery case for the iPhone 5 has had a terrific Kickstarter campaign. The campaign, which still has a day or two left, has double that of what they were hoping for – a testament to the well-planned design and promised capabilities of the device. Recently, iKit sent us over an early model of their NuCharge case and we have been very pleased with its usage over the past week. The company promises it to double your iPhone 5’s battery life and it truly does just that.
Opening the well-packaged iKit NuCharge for iPhone 5, the case comes in three pieces: The battery pack, the part that your phone connects to, and a secondary plate which can be used in lieu of the battery pack. This is just in case you want to reduce the thickness of your iPhone for the night if you can do without the extra juice. Open first glance, the build quality is quite good. The battery pack has a black, rubberized finish and features a really nifty Apple Lightning connector that pulls out from a secluded position on its underside. The Lightning connector is attached by way of a wiry, rubber nacelle and then can swing up and connect to the iPhone when it is all put together.
The iKit NuCharge still has a few things to iron out. The biggest problem is its kickstand which, in this early model, is made from a flimsy plastic that easily collapses and falls over, seemingly unable to support the phone’s weight. Now, the official word on their Kickstarter page is that this stand will be made of “unbreakable” reinforced aluminum. The problem here is that I cannot award a review score on promises – but on the model I was sent. I will revisit this review and update it when I get a hold of a production model. That being said, I have no doubt that the aluminum stand will solve the issue altogether. The other issue I found was that removing the battery pack from the phone case is very difficult. It snaps together, which is fine, but there isn’t any good place to grip the items to separate them.
Dual-charging is one of the gems of the NuCharge as, if you have the battery pack plugged into your iPhone 5 AND have the battery pack’s micro USB cable plugged in, you can charge both items at the same time! This helps usability quite a bit as you technically never have to remove the iPhone 5 from the NuCharge case in order to plug it in. In my using the NuCharge, it took about an hour and change to get it fully-charged. The phone case portion of the NuCharge does not protect the iPhone’s top or bottom sides at all, leaving them exposed. However, this is somewhat helpful as it allows you to get to the buttons as well as plug in headphones and other things without issue.
Taking photographs is no problem while the phone is in the NuCharge case as the camera hole is large enough that, not only does it provide an unobstructed view for the camera but, also, provides a non-glare surface around the flash area. I hate getting a phone case on my iPhone 5 only to find out pictures I take with it have glare due to “flash-back”. Thanks to the matte, rubberized material, that simply does not happen with the NuCharge.
The final bit of awesomeness put into the NuCharge package is the SEIKO energy saving technology which the company touts will never get hot or overheat. In my usage, I can confirm that the NuCharge never got hot or became unsafe to handle. This is smart thinking on the part of iKit, as some battery packs out there get super-hot when charging. I am always afraid they might get to hot and lose structural integrity.
The iKit NuCharge for iPhone 5 really will absolutely double your phone’s usage time thanks to its 1900 mah battery pack. It is one of the best phone battery cases I have been able to use – despite the kickstand issue. The iKit NuCharge is due to ship out this April and will retail for about $85 dollars. In the meantime, you can pre-order one via its Kickstarter program for only $59 dollars – so get moving and help fund the device!
[easyreview title=”iKit NuCharge for iPhone 5 Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″] Our Rating Scores Explained
