Review: Unu DX 5 iPhone 5 Battery Case

We’ve looked at Unu’s iPhone accessories a time or two before, once here for the iPhone 4S and again back in December for the “first iPhone 5 battery case”, the ECOpak. Initially, iPhone 5 battery packs and cases accessories were hard to come by because of Apple’s ever so strict licensing policies regarding the Lightning connector, who can license and what they can do with it. Well, finally half way through 2013 we’re finally starting to see the floodgates open and a rush of Lightning accessories pouring out.

While the ECOpak wasn’t really “case” so much as it was a battery pack that hooked to the back of your phone, the company’s latest DX 5 is indeed a bonafied battery case. Question is, is it worth your time?

Construction, Build Quality & Fit ‘n Finish

Once you slide your iPhone into the DX 5 and then slide the second top piece over your phone, you’ll immediately notice the added heft and size. With a 2,300 mAh battery tucked inside, the DX 5 is by no means a “small” or light and thin case. But what it lacks in thinness it makes up for in the battery department. (More on that in a few…)

The entire outside of the DX 5 is covered in a soft touch rubber of sorts. Haters of lint take note: the DX 5 won’t pull out every particle of dust and fuzz from your pockets. That said, some of it will inevitably come out.

On the top and sides of the case you’ll find corresponding buttons built into the case to activate the sleep/wake button and volume up/down buttons. Down below there is an off-center microUSB port for charging the DX 5 case as well as syncing content to/from iTunes and a cutout that will allow a decent amount of headphones to pass through to the headphone port. Speaking of which, owners of certain headphones which feature right angle plugs will need to use an extension cord/adapter to connect to the headphone port while the Unu is on. Not a huge deal breaker (nor expensive at that), but certainly something to consider.

Performance & Battery Life

Ahhhh, battery life. While the iPhone 5′s battery life isn’t bad by any means, it certainly isn’t enough for more hardcore data users and iPhone power users. For these individuals, the added 2,300 mAh of power is a huge plus, pretty much doubling your time in between charges.

In our testing we would run down the iPhone to ~1% just before it shut off and then flip the case on. The very first test netted fairly disappointing results despite the case’s battery meter saying it was fully charged – a mere 84% from 1%. But after a few more discharge/recharge cycles, we were routinely seeing 95-100% with a few tests even having another 8-10% additional charge for a second go.

Conclusion

The Unu DX 5 is one of the longest running iPhone 5 battery cases we’ve used so far. It looks pretty slick in the soft touch, matte black color and is reasonably comfortable to hold, though admittedly a tiny bit slippery in-hand. Also, users of headphones with 90-degree headphone plugs may also find the additional use of an adapter just to use your headphones a turn off. That aside, the performance is what ultimately matters most. And in that regard, it’s one of the best iPhone 5 cases that we’ve tried so far. $80 well spent.

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