Review: Lenmar Meridian iPhone Power Case
The iPhone is known for not having the longest battery life. Too often you see people carrying their charger with them as the phone won’t make it through the day (and that’s without calling!). Battery cases have been around for a while, but what makes them better than just carrying the plug?
Lenmar have released a number of battery cases, but sent us the Meridian model for the iPhone to test. It does double the thickness of the phone and adds a chin to the iPhone, but this quickly becomes unnoticeable when you see that little battery figure up the top right.
This past week, I’ve had the removals guys in. The first thing they asked to do was plug in their iPhones, because they were down to 40% battery by 11.30. When I showed them mine that was still at 100% they liked its toughness and that magic 100%. That was a prime example of a use case for this, there was no panic to do things before the battery would be dead, and it’d survive through a whole day.
We recently had the storm knock out power across the North Island. On Waiheke, we lost the power from around 8pm till late morning the next day. Normally a device would never last that long, people still use their phone when they get home, then plug it in when they go to bed.
Civil emergency made a recommendation that a mobile phone be available for emergencies. When the power went out, the mobile network was still running, so I could contact friends and check up on what was happening in the local community whilst we had no power. The Lenmar made sure I still had 100% power at midnight without having to plug it in. What more of a recommendation do you need?
The other feature of the Lenmar Meridian is that it charges via micro USB. Remember the days you used to stalk the office looking for a Nokia charger? It’s kind of the same with an iPhone charger. And now you have the problem of is it a lightning or a 30-pin connector. The Lenmar Meridian is equipped with a micro USB port, so if you do want to charge up the phone/battery, someone undoubtedly will have a cable!
There is a downside to the case, the lengthened chin means a headphone adaptor is required (it is supplied), but it’s not the most convenient of accessories. I’ve just used my bluetooth headphones instead, but it is something to be aware of.
Unfortunately the micro USB port is only for charging; there’s no capability to use the USB port for attaching peripherals. It would have been good to be able to add storage capacity, or to attach other devices.
Pros:
- All the protection benefits of a case
- Doubles the battery life
- Charges via micro USB
- Headphone adaptor required
- Adds heft and weight
The Meridian is available in black, white, gold and red, so the choice is there. I would have liked to see a screen protector provided as well, this would have had everything a user would have needed.
