I have a confession to make.
I sleep with my cell phone next to my pillow. It’s not like I am addicted to my phone or can’t put it down for a second, and anyone who has ever tried to call me knows that often my phone can be in one part of the house while I am in another. But as our phones have evolved to include the latest technology, they have become an indispensable part of life for many of us, which means that making sure our phones stay charged, are protected from the elements (as well as curious toddlers) and are being used to their fullest potential is crucial in order to get through our increasingly hectic lives.
Back in the old days, oh, say four or five years ago, when I got a new phone the first thing I did was order a case. Having an affinity for bold colors and things that go “wow,” I have owned both leopard print and colorful polka dotted cases. (FYI: Don’t ever buy cases at the mall, you can find the same ones on eBay at a fraction of the price.) But with today’s sophisticated phones, my first priority isn’t that my phone look cute, it is that my device be well protected against accidental drops and mishaps. My first smartphone, an iPhone 5, spent two years living in a pink and white Otterbox case. I know, it seems silly to put a sleek beautiful phone into a case that gives it the bulk of the Michelin Man, but I needed to know that if my phone ever took a tumble, I had, hopefully, upped its odds of survival. Yes, the colorful case looked like I had borrowed it from my granddaughters’ toy box, but I felt much more relaxed knowing that my phone was safely cuddled in dual layers of cushioning rubber.
With the arrival of my new iPhone 6 (which, of course, I got on Verizon’s free upgrade promotion) I decided to upgrade to the case of my dreams: the Lifeproof Fre.
Surprisingly slim, Lifeproof cases are guaranteed to be submersible in up to six and a half feet of water for up to an hour, are sealed from dirt, dust, snow and ice and are capable of withstanding drops from a height of six and a half feet. Truth be told, I haven’t tried drowning, dropping or burying my phone in the sand, because while I do believe the nice folks at Lifeproof, I can’t bear to subject my phone to any abuse, although my teenage son graciously offered to drop it for me. Now the reality is, most of us aren’t packing our phones into a snow bank or taking them into a windblown desert or a construction site, but if I had toddlers or babies at home, you can bet that the only way I would ever let them touch my phone would be if it was in a Lifeproof case. Protection like this doesn’t come cheap, Lifeproof cases retail for at $80, with occasional discounts popping up online. My only complaint? While the standard lightning cable works fine with this case, my Duracell car charger, which has a slightly wider connector than a standard lightning cable, doesn’t fit.
If you are a heavy phone user, you know that a single battery charge isn’t going to get you through the day, so unless you buy one of the newest phones with super long life batteries, you are going to need either a spare battery or an external charger. Since you can’t swap out batteries on an iPhone, I have gone the external charger route. My Jockery Mini charger, about the size of a lipstick case, has been a lifesaver on several occasions. Small, sleek and adorably orange, this is a great charger, with four little blue LEDs indicating how much juice it still possesses. What made me buy this charger over so many similar ones? Since I do most of my work in my home office, I don’t often need an external charger and this one stays charged for a full six months, so chances are good that when I need to run out the door and grab it, it will be ready to use. I also have a MyCharge Talk & Charge which has some great features. It comes with its own attached cable and is less clumsy than the Jockery, which is tethered to my phone by a cable and has to be put somewhere, a nuisance when you are on the go. Best of all, with MyCharge you don’t have to take your phone out of the case to use it. You just rest your phone, case and all, on top of the MyCharge, plug in the attached cable and you are ready to roll. The fact that it comes pre-charged and offers 13 hours of charging? Pretty nice.