I was on vacation last week when Apple’s new first-party Smart Battery Case arrived on my doorstep, which was actually kind of nice—freed from the pressures of having to write something about it as soon as humanly possible, I could just use it for a few days and worry about writing everything down at a later date.

The ease with which you can “just use” the battery case is probably the best thing about it; you slide your phone into it and go about your business. But it’s not for everyone, and when I send it back to Apple I probably won’t end up buying one of my own.

Basic facts

This is the first battery case that Apple itself has made for any of its iPhones. It’s compatible with the iPhone 6 and 6S, but not with any larger or smaller iDevices (I plugged in a sixth-generation iPod Touch just to see what it did, and iOS recognized the case properly for a moment before telling me the accessory wasn’t supported). No version for the 6 Plus or 6S Plus exists, which is probably fine since those models already have better battery life than their smaller counterparts.