Mashbuttons takes the switchBACK surge g4 on road trip with no charger

Coincidently, I had received the surge g4 last Thursday, just a day before the holiday weekend. The next day on a moments notice, the family packed up and decided to go on a 17 hour drive, and you know that moment you forgot something, well that something happened to be a phone charger, and no, we don’t have a car charger…yet. The surge g4 may be the saving grace in this situation, being that it is a battery case for the iPhone 4 that boasts up to 80% charge on a dead battery. On top of coming to my aid in a pinch, it also has a kickstand integrated to the design.

The kickstand, you know, the moped of accessory features, because if you work at a desk it will be used daily but never have I seen one that you want to show off around the water cooler. At first I wanted to say it looked larger than the other battery cases we have latched onto our phones, but side by side, it wasn’t visually larger than any of the lot. Like the Mophie is equipped with, the surge has a power switch rather than a power button and separate button on the back that shows remaining charge.

The charger location, coating, and how the case fit were the only things I had an issue with.  The location for the charger is in the bottom like all of the rest, but the reason I didn’t like is that it was inset and a fit for their charger but if you are like me, then you use multiple chargers and those much larger than Scosche’s provided charger will not be useable. The surface coating was another part of the case’s design that I would have liked to see done differently as Scosche’s design team decided to use a glossy look to the black case, and it shows ALL smudges and isn’t too hard to scratch either. The fit of the case was the final issue I encountered; it comes with two removable back plates, one black and the other, a brushed metal. I wanted to use the black one as my white phone didn’t match to begin with, but it just wouldn’t stay on the phone no matter how I man handled it.

So how does this compare to the other battery cases we have reviewed in the last year? Top of the chart, it had me at kickstand. This is the first battery case we have reviewed with a switch and I preferred that to powering the battery pack on in error when checking to see how much charge is left. Other than that, it does what it say and does it well, while looking good enough to leave on rather than as needed, and included a built in stand that allowed my phone to be propped up while at my desk. I am a bit disappointed the case isn’t offered in white, but being able to stream from my phone at my desk, with enough juice to mostly refill my battery before having to recharge.