I just completed several days of testing the Lightercase, a gadget billed as the “World’s First Ever” protective smartphone case with a built-in no flame/fuel cigarette lighter and LED flashlight. The product only exists in a prototype stage, with an IndieGoGo campaign aiming at receiving enough funding to start production in time for the holidays. The case I received for review was designed to fit my white iPhone 5, although versions should also be available for the iPhone 4 and 4s, iPhone 5s, Galaxy S3 and S4, and HTC One.
As a paper insert cautioned upon opening the package, my prototype case isn’t necessarily constructed of the same materials the final shipping product will use. Unfortunately, that means I can’t really speak to the quality of look and feel the product will offer. The website order page mentions color options of black or white with black, blue, white, or pink metal accents but this case had no metal accents whatsoever. Furthermore, the white plastic of this case appeared more of an off-white when placed up against my snow white iPhone 5. (The InCase slider type case I normally use with my iPhone is a much closer color match.) On the positive side, my phone fit tightly in the case without being too difficult to snap into place or remove again.
As a non-smoker, I’m probably not the ideal tester for this product, but I do get the occasional stranger asking me if I “have a light” when I’m walking around downtown. With this case on my iPhone, I finally feel prepared to assist the next person who asks. The lighter design is essentially a scaled down version of the automobile cigarette lighter, with a small coil in a circular recess on the back of the case. When the slider switch is pushed down, exposing the recessed coil, and held for several seconds, a red LED flashes to indicate the coil is heating up and the coil begins emitting an orange glow. After a couple of seconds, the power to the coil shuts back off, even if the switch continues to be held down. I assume this serves as a battery saving feature and a safety feature (preventing the coil from heating up the plastic case surrounding it enough to melt it). It should be just enough time for a user to light a cigarette successfully though, and the lack of a flame means windy days won’t pose any difficulty either.
The LED flashlight function duplicates the feature built into my iPhone itself, though it’s more convenient because I only have to hold down a white button on the case to illuminate it.
Lightercase isn’t powered from the iPhone’s own internal battery. Rather, it has a large battery pack built into it, which recharges via a mini-USB port and (included) mini USB to USB cable. This cable allows recharging the case directly from a computer’s USB port or with an optional AC adapter or car power adapter designed to accept USB charging cables. I’m not sure how long the flashlight runs on a battery charge, but the manufacturer claims the cigarette lighter is good for up to 200 uses per charge. The battery recharges fully in three to five hours.
In regular use, the added bulk of the battery pack became an annoyance. Essentially, the Lightercase doubles the thickness of my iPhone 5. I can manage to fit the phone in a pants pocket, mind you, but it made it difficult putting anything else (such as my keyring) in the same pocket. It’s obvious why a smoker would find it worthwhile (no need to carry around a separate lighter or risk losing it), but for me? This case just wasn’t adding enough value to justify turning my slim iPhone into a replica of earlier cellphones with big extended battery packs snapped onto them.
Lightercase isn’t the only game in town. Celltorch appears to be a worthy competitor using a traditional butane lighter flame. Not only does this eliminate the need to add a bulky battery pack to the case, but the flame allows use by cigar smokers who can’t physically fit the larger tip of a cigar into the small opening of Lightercase.
All in all, I’d say I understand the problem these products attempt to solve, but it’s not really one non-smokers have to deal with. If you smoke and are more likely to have easy access to your smartphone than a working lighter, you might want to think about one of these cases. Until these become more commonplace, you’ll at least earn points for the “cool factor” of utilizing your phone for something the next guy can’t just do with an app download.
Comments are closed.