Cool Shell Review: Unified appearance and "coupled" functions are far from enough

Some time ago, the news that the iPhone can be disassembled to upgrade the storage made many Apple fans excited, but in view of the quality risks of such modification, most people dare not "make a rash move". At this time, the mobile phone case "Cool Shell" under the banner of "capacity expansion artifact" was launched. Cool Shell supports iPhone6 ​​and 6s and can provide 16GB/64GB expansion versions. The editor couldn't help but buy this product at the first time. Let's take a look at its experience.

1. Cool Shell Design Appearance and Configuration

In terms of appearance design, the Cool Shell provides two colors for users to choose from: white and black. The visual experience is good at first glance, except that the brand logo "K" on the back is too abrupt. The back of the Cool Shell is made of polycarbonate. The plastic back sacrifices the original metal texture of the iPhone and is a bit slippery in the hand. At the same time, the back is more likely to be stained with fingerprints, which is a bit unbearable for the editor with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The side frame is made of black rubber , which provides good protection for the phone. However, we have to complain that there are not enough interfaces for headphones, which makes right-angle headphones unusable. It is only compatible with Apple and some headphones. For users who have certain requirements for sound quality, this is a fatal flaw.

The Cool Shell charging switch is set at the bottom of the back and uses a physical button to make the operation more direct and reliable, but it sacrifices the overall beauty to a certain extent.

The Cool Shell 6/6s version weighs 68.5 grams and is 3.9 mm thick, the 6Plus/6s Plus version weighs 88 grams and is 5.2 mm thick; the iPhone 6, 6 plus, iPhone 6s, and 6s plus weigh 129 grams, 172 grams, 143 grams, and 192 grams, respectively. Take the iPhone 6s plus for example, with the cool shell, it weighs 280 grams and is 12.5 mm thick. The hand feel is significantly reduced. You should know that the Hammer T1, which has been complained by many people for its thickness, is only 8.23 ​​mm thick.

2. Cool Shell Practicality Experience

The Cool Case uses the Light Sync interface to fix the Lightning interface of the phone on the Cool Case. This design will not make the chin look too long, but you must be careful when installing it, otherwise the interface will be broken. In addition, people are more worried that if the phone falls, the card slot may break inside the phone, and long-term use may cause poor contact of the interface. If the data stored in the Cool Case cannot be read, there is no remedy at all?

After installing Cool Shell, you need to install the "My Cool Shell" App and use it to read/import photos or other files. After installing Cool Shell, turn on the power switch on the back of Cool Shell. At this time, the phone will prompt to add trust. After that, you need to install the description file in "Settings". After opening the Cool Shell Assistant, it will automatically guide you to jump to the AppStore to download "My Cool Shell".

Some app lovers may be curious: Can apps be installed in Cool Shell? The answer is no. The memory storage of Cool Shell can only be used as a large-capacity USB flash drive, and apps cannot be installed directly in Cool Shell. In terms of speed, it takes less than 1 minute to transfer a 480M video, and the speed is about 10M B/S. It is okay to transfer short videos, but it is a bit incapable to transfer 4k videos shot by 6s.

There is also a resource download function at the bottom of the Cool Shell Assistant App , which can cache resources from some video/music websites, but in fact, there are not many supported websites and the download speed is relatively slow, which is a bit useless.

During the trial, we also found that the Cool Case also had problems with signal drop and heat increase. The metal shell has a certain impact on the communication signal. Although the Cool Case has communication ports on both the top and bottom sides, the signal is still 15-25% lower than the naked iPhone 6, which has a relatively large impact on the signal. The heating problem is also quite serious. Charging the phone and the Cool Case will generate a lot of heat. At the same time, the plastic back panel is not conducive to heat dissipation.

In addition to the expansion, the Cool Shell is also equipped with a 2400mAh lithium polymer battery, which helps to extend the battery life of the phone. However, in the trial, the Cool Shell's charging efficiency for the phone is not high, and the power conversion is not optimized. The 2400mAh power can only charge 6 Plus to 30% of the power.

3. Price

The Cool Shell iPhone6/6s expanded capacity version 16GB/64GB is priced at 298 yuan/498 yuan respectively, the Plus 6/6s Plus expanded capacity version 16GB/64GB is priced at 328 yuan/528 yuan respectively. The price of the domestic iPhone6s 16G version is 5288 yuan, and the Cool Shell 64GB expanded capacity is 498 yuan, which is 302 yuan cheaper than the domestic 64GB version, and the price advantage is not that big.

IV. Conclusion

The Cool Shell is similar to the iPhone in appearance, but its actual functions are not fully coupled with the iPhone. The Cool Shell can provide a certain degree of battery life and storage expansion for the iPhone, but the closed nature of the Apple system itself limits its storage expansion effect, making its function closer to a mobile power bank and USB flash drive. Of course, compared with the large storage version of the iPhone itself, it has a small price advantage, but it is at the expense of some experience.

In short, as a relatively innovative smart hardware, Cool Shell is still a bit far from being a capacity expansion tool and there is still a lot of room for improvement.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.