Engineered for iPhone 11, the Smart Battery Case gives you even longer battery life while offering great protection. Inside, a soft microfiber lining helps protect your iPhone. And on the outside, the silky, soft-touch finish of the silicone exterior feels great in your hand. A soft elastomer hinge design makes it easy to put the case on and take it off.

The case features a dedicated camera button that launches the Camera app whether the iPhone is locked or unlocked. A quick press of the button takes a photo and a longer press captures QuickTake video. It works for selfies, too.

The Smart Battery Case is also compatible with Qi-certified chargers. You can charge your iPhone and battery case simultaneously. And when fully charged, the Smart Battery Case delivers up to 50% longer battery life.* This results in increased talk time, internet use, and even longer audio and video playback. With the Smart Battery Case on, the intelligent battery status is displayed on the iPhone Lock screen and in Notification Center, so you know exactly how much charge you have left.

The case can be charged even faster with USB-PD-compatible chargers. It also supports Lightning accessories, such as the EarPods with Lightning Connector (included with your iPhone) or the Lightning Digital AV Adapter (sold separately).

Apple’s normal silicone case conceals a hard plastic skeleton that’s prone to cracking after frequent drops. There’s no such hard backing under this silicone, though, chiefly so you can use the elastomer “hinge” to bend back the top of this case and easily slip the iPhone into (and out of) the Smart Battery Case’s Lightning port. This, in fact, is one of the main perks of the Smart Battery Case

This shared port lets the case chat directly with iOS, which is where the “smart” part comes in. You’ll get a taste of it when you first slip the phone inside, as the iPhone’s lock screen will display charging icons for both the case and the phone. Even better, in iOS 13 proper, you can swipe over to the battery widget in the Notifications screen and see the Smart Battery Case listed along with your AirPods, Apple Watch, and whatever other devices you have hooked up.

As for the new camera button, it’s little more than a subtle concave groove in the case’s side—much like a thumbprint left a slab of Play-Doh. You can buy the case in black, white (or “pink sand,” but only if you own an iPhone 11 Pro or 11 Pro Max), but as you can see in our unboxing video above, the button all but disappears into the silicone of the black model we received.

I’m glad to see another option on an Apple device, but its convenience is questionable. The camera app doesn’t immediately pop up when you tap the button, likely to keep the camera from flipping on every time your phone bumps into something in your bag or pocket. Instead, the camera app only appears if you hold down the button for around a second