Keenan Schneider offers a healthy dose of rational discussion on Apple’s newly released battery case:

Flexible silicone exterior, making inserting and removing your phone significantly easier than any other option out there. A Lightning port that can easily fit onto a dock, and allows you to charge both the case and the phone at exactly the same time with a single cable. An intelligent battery indicator that integrates seamlessly with iOS. Extra antennas built in to ensure that using the case as intended doesn’t ruin your reception. Not to mention keeping the areas surrounding the battery itself as thin as possible to provide the best possible ergonomic situation. You can’t say any of that about any other option out there.

I didn’t really understand all the outrage over Apple’s Smart Battery Case. It’s humped back is definitely aesthetically unappealing, but I’ve never seen a battery case on the market that could be described as “attractive.” And given all of the additional features that Apple’s offering provides, I would probably end up buying their’s if I was ever in need of such a thing.