Apple Smart Battery Case for iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR review: much more refined design, and Qi wireless charging is nice, but it is still bulky and expensive
Jeff Benjamin / 9to5Mac :
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's second-generation Smart Battery Case is a direct answer to the criticism that dogged the original 2015 model, which reviewers found well behind third-party rivals on added capacity per dollar. The new version, launched two days earlier at $129 with Qi charging support for the XR, XS, and XS Max, finally aligns the case with the wireless charging standard Apple introduced to the iPhone line with the 8 and 8 Plus.
The timing matters because the audience is large: CIRP put the iPhone XS and XS Max at a combined 26% of US iPhone sales last quarter, so an accessory refresh aimed squarely at those models reaches a meaningful slice of the installed base.
First-order effects
- XS, XS Max, and XR owners can now top up wirelessly on a Qi pad without removing the case, while keeping the Lightning-cable fallback and on-screen charge reporting the 2015 case already offered.
- The recurring reviewer complaint — bulk and price — carries over unchanged, so buyers are choosing between Apple's integration and cheaper third-party cases with more capacity.
Second-order effects
- Third-party battery-case makers now have to match Qi passthrough and iOS-level charge integration rather than compete on raw milliamp-hours alone, since Apple's software hooks remain its differentiator.
- The $129 price point re-anchors the premium battery-accessory category, giving rivals room to undercut on cost just as they did against the 2015 case.
Third-order effects
- Apple's own trajectory points past the hump-style case entirely: by 2021 the company had moved to the MagSafe Battery Pack, which drops the case shell for a snap-on pack that also charges AirPods — suggesting the accessory line evolves toward modular attachables rather than ever-thinner cases.
- Across three generations the pattern holds: reviewers call each version expensive, yet Apple keeps shipping premium-priced power accessories, indicating the margin structure matters more to Apple than winning the value comparison.
The trend: Apple's iPhone power accessories are migrating from bulky protective cases toward integrated wireless and magnetic add-ons, with software integration — not capacity per dollar — as the consistent selling point.