Urbanista Las Vegas iPhone 4 / 4S Case Review

Taking a look at Urbanista’s product portfolio, it’s easy to see that they take the design of all their consumer products seriously. From headphones to cases, all of them stand out in a mostly good way, and following on from our Urbanista Copenhagen headphones review, today we have the Urbanista Las Vegas iPhone 4 / 4S case which promises to extend the life of your phone by a whole 100%. So does it? Read on.

Design

Charger cases tend to add a little bit of bulk to any handset due to the battery within, however unlike the Mophie Juice Pack Air, the Urbanista Las Vegas looks rather sleek. In the box, you’ll find a handy microfiber screen cloth, a screen protector and the main attraction, the Las Vegas case of which features a rather neat design whereby you can detach and attach new side shells to the case of different colours (Dark Clown, Red Snapper and Gun Metal included).

These detachable side panels make the Las Vegas look rather slim. With the side panels off or on, the case has a depth of around 14mm which houses the battery and length wise, in the real world, the case manages its space nicely incorporating at the bottom a power button which when pressed will let you know how much charge the case has through neat looking (if a little small) blue LED’s. Towards the back of the case you’ll find some Urbanista branding, and the back is all finished off in a nice feeling matte black plastic which has a sort of soft touch to it.

Moving on to build quality and the Las Vegas seems to be pretty durable. With an iPhone 4S in the case though you’ll have 210 grams of bulk, so dropping your iPhone 4S in this case may cause some damage to internals as well as the plastic shell this case houses. Changing the side panels of the case is also quite easy if a little fiddly, as you’ll have to find out the right place to pull a panel off whilst applying adequate pressure. This pressure tends to make you think you’re going to break something due to the plastic design, however you won’t and overall the case is quite tough using good quality build materials to boot. Check out the Urbanista Las Vegas spec’s below.

• PowerCase™ for iPhone 4 & 4s
• Capacity: 1500mAh (Li-polymer battey)
• Output: 5V/500mA
• Color on bumpers: BLACK-black/red/silver
• Material: ABS
• Emballage: Blister Box
• Size: 129.5 x 62 x 14.9 mm
• Weight: 70g

Performance

Urbanista is selling this case on the basis it will offer up a 100% recharge for your iPhone 4S when the case has been charged to the max. Testing this, we let an iPhone 4 completely die fast-tracked through a HD movie and allowed the Urbanista case to charge fully. After this, I inserted the iPhone 4 in to the case and left it for an hour.

The end result of the above test was this; the Urbanista Las Vegas charged my iPhone 4 to 100% with a little bit to spare, and I managed to watch a few Youtube clips before the case maxed itself out and my iPhone carried on draining its power source. For iPhone 4S users, I reckon this case will just about charge your handset to 100%.

One thing I do like about the Las Vegas is not only the performance above, but also the nice thoughts that Urbanista put in to it which will make you want to possibly keep the case on; some of these include speaker holes at the bottom of the case, clear access to all ports and small holes around the side panels which not only look good, but probably also help with cooling too.

Price

The Urbanista Las Vegas iPhone 4 / 4S case will set you back £69.99 across the board, which is a lot of money for a case which isn’t made of leather or military grade materials, but not a lot of money when you think of the performance on offer.

Verdict

I like the Las Vegas; it looks good, it performs well, it’s borderline affordable and it should last you the life cycle of your handset. If I had any criticism, it would be that changing the side panels of the case can be a little bit fiddly but lets be honest, Urbanista is only trying to make their product stand out from its competition.

Rating: (9/10)