iPhone 7's Ugly Battery Fix Highlights Apple's Greedy Design.
As expected, Apple has released an updated iPhone Smart Battery Case alongside the release of the iPhone 7. As expected it addresses the key issue of the 4.7 inch iPhone not having enough battery power to make it through a decent day’s work. And as expected, upgrading users who have the iPhone 6 Smart Battery Case will have to decide if they want to sacrifice the new optical image stabilised camera, or hand over another ninety-nine dollars to Apple just to get the same functionality they already have with the existing case.
All of which sums up the latest iPhone experience in a nutshell. Take last year’s model, tweak it just enough so everyone feels the need to upgrade to the latest model, and rely on a bigger number in the specification sheet to make it feel ‘new’ while retaining the same functionality.
With so much time spent talking about the choice of colors and finish on the iPhone 7, this would have been a good time to tweak the design of the Battery Case to something that looked attractive, alluring, and Apple-like. Unfortunately the case still looks like a rushed school science project.
Yes the functionality of the battery case is there, but the form of the case still looks improvised. There are no clean lines, the battery pack projects out like an awkward balcony, and the charging LED is still on the inside of the case and not visible when the iPhone is in situ. Annoyingly, the new case makes no accommodation for the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6S.
In the past, Apple has sweated the small details. To take one example the centre of the speaker holes, lightning port, and the 3.5mm headphone jack (when it was present) all line up along a single axis. Because Apple has moved the centre point of the camera lens, the cutout for the larger camera housing on the iPhone 7 Smart Battery Case still obscures the lens on the iPhone 6 and 6S. The same is true going in the opposite direction – pop the iPhone 7 into the older generation of Smart Battery Cover and the camera lens is once more obscured.
Neither is this unique to the Smart Battery Case, all of the cases designed for the iPhone 6 and 6S are incompatible because Apple made the decision to move the camera lens rather than work the problem to retain as much backward compatibility as possible. Annoyingly, the battery, the circuitry, and the location of the lightning connector means that the iPhones can work in opposite case (the iPhone 7 in the 6′s case, and the 6/6S in the 7′s case). The hardware is identical, yet you’ll have to buy it again – there’s no such thing as the iPhone Smart Battery Case Upgrade Program.
This isn’t a magical experience for the user, this isn’t about making life easier. It demands that new iPhone 7 owners take a trip to the Apple Store to buy a new case that allows you to do exactly the same as last year’s case. Well played, Apple. Well played.
With so much effort made to promote the waterproofing of the new iPhone models, it’s a surprise that the Smart Battery Case has not picked up the same waterproofing protection. Once more it’s a small detail that I would have expected Apple to address. Surely Apple wants to make sure the user is delighted at every moment and everything just works?
Apple has built up a reputation for looking good and sweating the small details. 2016′s iPhone Smart Battery Case ignores that reputation, Apple ignored the opportunity to update, and I’m surprised that so many moments of joy have not been implemented. Instead Apple has a product that continues to feel rushed, that does nothing to promote Apple as a leading design light in the smartphone space and gives off an air of ‘take the money again and run’.
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