“I’m taking pictures of my butt. For SCIENCE!”
Yes, the Internet will now have picture of my derriere because I am that committed to my review process.
A month ago, Tech21 reached out to offer me an opportunity to review their Evo Endurance battery case since I had mentioned that I found other battery packs awfully bulky. Although GeekDad Mordechai had reviewed the Endurance, he is lucky enough to be a man and have Man Pockets on all his pants. Man pockets are amazing. You laugh, but if you’re a lady, you know that our front pockets are functionally worthless unless you’re folding up dollar bills y’all, if they’re not sewn shut like some are. Our back pockets are ridiculously small (for fashion reasons, I know). However, this also means that if you’re wearing lady pants and want to carry your phone in your pocket, the big bulky battery case isn’t going to work so well for you.
I can openly admit that the previous review regarding length of charge was fairly accurate. The Tech21 battery case gives about an extra half charge to your phone. For the most part, my days consist of working at a desk near an outlet, driving in a car that allows me to plug things in, and meandering around doing errands or adventures with my kid. Truthfully, I realized a while ago that I didn’t really need to even have a battery pack which was why I was in search of a cool protective style case. Then, I got myself a smart watch and some bluetooth headphones. Suddenly, I needed to leave on all those power sucking controls that I normally turned off.
So, here we are with me needing some more power. The Evo Endurance does a pretty good of fulfilling my need for that little extra bit of juice. I don’t have a lot of high needs. I need, on average, about an extra 3-4 hours of battery. For me, then, the Evo Endurance worked out pretty well. The package said it gives an extra 60% charge. I didn’t quite manage that. I probably eked out about another 50%. However, that metric could also be due to the fact that the Evo Endurance has a feature that leaves the battery automatically on once unplugged. This means that the phone keeps charging until you actively turn off the Evo or the Evo runs out of juice on its own. For a lot of people, seeing that 100% all day long is probably great. I like to keep my battery pack off until I need it. For my personality, this was a slightly off-putting feature. For a lot of people, however, I can see how it would be helpful.
The smaller battery gives a slightly slimmer profile than the slimmest high powered battery case I’d found. This means that when the tush pockets are small, the phone doesn’t add bulk to your profile. Despite the pictures not being as clear as I would like, there’s a definite difference in width between the traditional battery pack and the Evo Endurance.
Personally, the thing I most loved about the Endurance was exactly what I really enjoyed about the Impact. The protective material from which it’s made is awesome. As we have all learned, clumsy is my middle name. I constantly take my phone on adventures with my son. Now, we don’t do extreme sports or anything; however, we go a lot of places. I take a lot of pictures. I drop a lot of things. My former case had some scratches that are pretty rough to the touch at this point. I can safely say that in terms of protecting your technology, the Endurance does a pretty excellent job. Made from the same bulletproof plastic as its other cases, the Endurance is certainly droppable. As with the non-battery cases, the plastic has a nice grip and is comfortable to hold. The best part, however, may be that the Endurance is actually more sturdy for those times that your phone falls out of your back pocket into a toilet than an iPhone is. While the iPhone needed to be replaced, the Endurance still works. The off button doesn’t work at this point, but the situation didn’t lend itself to an all out new purchase. Also, for what it’s worth, there are some brands of denim shorts whose back pockets are much wider than others, which is a thing to keep in mind when thinking about whether your phone will stay in said pocket for the duration.
With all levity aside, the Endurance is a really great short term power option that is slightly lighter weight and just enough thinner to be more manageable on an ongoing basis for people who want a little extra juice without the wider profile.
