Adding an eBook-style screen to the back of your smartphone, InkCase lets you keep tabs on the world while conserving your battery.
While smartphones and tablets are incredibly useful, the more you use them the sooner the battery runs flat – in part because the screens are so power-hungry. InkCase aims to address this by building a Kindle-style eInk display into the back of a smartphone case – talking to your phone via low-power Bluetooth 4.0.
![Oaxis' InkCase i6 for the iPhone 6 builds an eBook reader into the back of your phone.](/web/20161201060549im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/y/z/9/9/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsyya9.png/1480306563224.jpg)
InkCase began life as a Kickstarter project for Apple and Android devices but the second-generation models, available via Oaxis, are only available for Apple gadgets. At roughly AU$179, Oaxis's InkCase i6 is available for the iPhone 6/6s, with an InkCase i7 model available for pre-order for the iPhone 7.
The iPhone 6/6s model is a very snug fit, which ensures it stays in place but will frustrate people who regularly need to remove their phone case to slip the handset into something like a car cradle.
![The InkCase i6's home screen, which is difficult to read thanks to small white text on a black background with ...](/web/20161201060549im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/y/z/9/7/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsyya9.png/1480306563224.jpg)
The case only adds 4.2mm to the thickness of your phone, protecting the corners against impact damage but not protecting the screen against scratches. In return you gain a 4.3-inch, 480x800 pixel monochrome screen on the back of the case which, like an eBook reader, only uses power when you change what's on the screen.
The case doesn't draw power from your phone, instead it has its own 460 mAh battery which is charged via a supplied custom MagSafe-style USB cable. The case should last for weeks between charges and is supposedly good for 19 hours of non-stop eBook reading.
The InkCase also has a few touch-sensitive buttons which let you navigate through several home screens displaying useful information such as the time, date and weather forecast along with a list of your upcoming reminders, calendar appointments and daily step count. The case also has a news feed widget plus it can store up to 10 photographs transferred via the InkCase app, not that they look very good on the eInk screen.
While the InkCase sounds pretty impressive, the trouble is that it's not all that useful. These days all that home screen information is baked into the iOS lock screen, you only need to wake the screen for a few seconds to see it.
![The eBook reader app built into Oaxis' InkCase i6 for the iPhone 6, although this product shot makes the screen look ...](/web/20161201060549im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/y/z/9/8/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsyya9.png/1480306563224.jpg)
Unfortunately the InkCase lacks support for pop-up notifications such as emails, text messages, missed calls, voicemail notifications and calendar alerts, as well as third-party notifications. I'd argue it's this information which would be the most useful to see at a glance, similar to a smartwatch.
These kinds of features were touted as part of the original Kickstarter project but for some reason are missing from the InkCase i6 available from Oaxis and not referred to on the Oaxis website, although Oaxis has been releasing firmware updates gradually adding more features.
These shortcomings put a serious dent in the InkCase's value proposition. To be honest waking your iPhone for a few seconds to look at the lock screen is not a significant burden on your battery, nor a major inconvenience considering you're already holding your phone. If you don't already leave Bluetooth running 24/7, leaving Bluetooth on just to support the InkCase is likely to negate any power savings – you need to find a really good use for the InkCase to make it worth it.
This is where the InkCase's eBook reader features come into play. The case doesn't have direct access to an eBook store, but you can load text and unprotected ePub files by emailing them to your phone, importing them into the InkCase app and then transferring them to the case – it has 128MB of onboard storage.
You can also use the EpiReader app to copy across Adobe-protected ePub files linked to your Adobe ID. Finally you can link it to a Pocket account to view online articles that you've bookmarked to read later, which seems like a more practical use for the InkCase than reading novels.
Unfortunately the other trouble with the InkCase is readability. The home screen fonts are too small, you can't modify the layout or switch to black text on a white background. The product photography on Oaxis's website included in this review exaggerates the screen's whiteness and contrast – making it look like a Kindle Paperwhite when in truth it is much harder on the eyes. My photo at the top of the page, taken outside on a slightly overcast day, shows you what you really get and the screen looks a lot duller once the sun goes behind a cloud.
Like the early Kindles, the InkCase's screen isn't too bad outside in the sunshine but it's harder to read the screen when you're inside – whereas smartphone screens tend to be the opposite. Of course there's nothing that says the InkCase needs to be attached to your phone, you might decide to use it as a standalone second screen, perhaps mounted on the dashboard of your car.
If you're looking to regularly read eBooks then your money would be much better put towards a Kindle or Kobo reader which offers a bigger screen with better contrast and crisper fonts to offer a more pleasant extended reading experience. Alternatively you might just keep an external battery in your travel bag to nurse your phone through long days.
Whether the InkCase is right for you depends on whether you can find a good use for it. It might make sense if you spend your days outside, struggling to read your phone's screen in the sunlight unless you crank the brightness and shorten the battery life. But once you get out of the sun that eInk display loses a lot of its shine.
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