Anyone that owns a smart phone these days knows that there never seems to be enough battery life. This is even more true for those of us with the HTC EVO 4G from Sprint. The phone is excellent (once it is configured properly). But has the worst battery life in a phone I have ever seen. In a normal day just in typical usage (for me) I get about 7-8 hours of life. If I am in an area with poor reception it is even worse (sometimes as little as 3 hours). There are multiple ways to try and extend this life; everything from killing tasks to running around with an extra battery pack to externally charge your phone. None of these really work though and all are time consuming. Trust me there is nothing like trying to talk with a giant tumbdrive dangling from your EVO. Fortunately there are battery packs and cases that do not require you to leave them hanging from the phone. We are taking a look at one of these today; it is the PowerSkin Silicone case with Bulit-in Battery for the HTC EVO 4G.
The PowerSkin for HTC EVO 4G -As you saw on the case the PowerSkin for the EVO 4G is a silicone case with a 1000mA battery stuffed inside. The silicone is intended to protect the phone inside and is quite thick. Looking down inside the case you can see even the upper lip is thicker than most. Interestingly the battery is highlighted in the case design where most others would try their best to conceal it. This is very visible on the back when we flip it over. Notice that button in the middle at the bottom? That is to check the charge on the battery.
Looking at the right side of the case we find the charging port. This is on the right as the connector for the phone is (obviously) going to be blocking the one at the bottom and there is not enough room for it to route back to the same location without making the case far too long. PowerSkin did leave an opening for the micro HDMI port and the mic though. One item that you cannot really see is that the power connector from the battery to the phone is actually a small cable. This is both good and bad. It is good in that you can pull it out to connect it to the phone properly and bad because cables this thin often wear out.
Once we get the EVO 4G inside the case we have something of a monster on our hands. This thing is just plain huge. As my kids put it “you have a brick now” PowerSkin has given you fairly good access to the back speaker, camera and LEDs (for the flash and flashlight. The texture of the case is not slick so you have a good grip on it even if it is a little wet. Of course no case protects the screen fully, but there is also no lip around the edge to help with a face down fall. I would have liked to see that on this product.
