Battery cases can be useful for extending the battery life of your device without having to lug around an extra external battery, or having to bring along a second charged battery for your phone. In the case of many, many newer smartphones, you can't even swap the battery out, so that eliminates the latter right off the bat.
The Galaxy Note 5 is a perfect situation for that kind of case; it doesn't have the best battery life, and you can't change out the battery yourself. That's where the ZeroLemon battery case comes in by offering a whopping 8,500mAh battery in a protective case, which should keep your phone going for days.
The case itself is more than a little bulky, for better or worse. It's actually designed as a portable battery that slides into an external case, which then houses the phone itself.
The battery that slips into the case also has a USB port on the top right, which means you can carry it around as its own portable battery. At 8,500mAh, that's a very sizable battery that's no bigger than a smartphone. There are cutouts in the external case so you can still use that USB port while the entire product is put together with your phone in it, too.
On the bottom of the case you'll find an offset microUSB port for charging the battery and your phone, plus cutouts for the headphone jack.
There's no other way to describe this case besides bulky. It's a huge battery that's built separately from the case, which goes on a phone that's already not small. Granted, there's almost no way to make a slim battery case that has as much extra charge as this case, but that's something to keep in mind if you prefer smaller, compact cases. It's also very durable and feels well made, so you shouldn't have to worry about your phone getting damaged.
Since we're dealing with an 8,500mAh battery to recharge the Note 5's 3,000mAh OEM battery, you're looking at over two additional charges from one charge of the battery case. I managed to consistently get two extra charges while still using the device before needing to recharge anything, which makes for three full charge cycles away from the wall.
The drawbacks to the case, aside from the bulk, is that it definitely feels like a third-party accessory. The phone treats the case as an external battery charger, since that's all it technically is. It intelligently turns itself off once the device is fully charged to avoid overcharging your phone, but there were many instances where it would just stop charging halfway through charging. It was rare, but happened often enough to be an annoyance.
The back of the case features LED lights to tell you how much charge the case has left, and a power button that you hold to turn on and off.
If you don't care about size and bulk and just want the most battery life possible on your device, you can't argue that this isn't the best case for your situation. If you need something a little more svelte and integrated, though, there are probably better options, especially since the case costs $60.
Buy it now: Amazon
Their Nexus 6P case was a huge flop that they removed it from the market, they claimed that there will be another revised case but the truth is it was cancelled altogether.
I would not trust a company like zerolemons
I love extended batteries, especially Zero lemons products. I’ve always had an excellent experience with them on past phones.
However, I recently purchased the 8500 MA battery for my current phone, a Note 5, and had a very bad experience. The phone became so overheated during the charging that it went completely wonky and unresponsive.
I wonder if anyone else has had this experience?