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Near-field communication (NFC) smartphone cases have gone viral on social media over the last few months. These cases enable users to express themselves by displaying a photo or graphic of their choice. NFC smartphone cases are possibly some of the most unique smartphone cases, where NFC is just a part of it, while a coloured e-ink display is actually the heart and soul of an NFC case.
NFC cases are now available for a variety of smartphones, especially for flagship smartphones from Samsung and Apple, and it’s quite hard to find one for a budget smartphone, as these cases are mostly on the expensive side, costing upwards of Rs 1,000 in most cases.
An NFC case is a generic term used for a smartphone case with a coloured e-ink display the same technology that powers most e-book readers such as Amazon Kindle, which enables users to display pictures and digital art on the back of their smartphone. Most of these cases also offer some amount of protection; however, they might not be the most secure cases when it comes to accidental damage protection, as they are built for different purposes.
When you attach an NFC case to a smartphone, it can communicate with the device using NFC, which, just like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, can transmit data, but at a much slower rate. As the name suggests, these cases only work with phones that support NFC.
Most of these cases communicate with the phone via an app to transmit the image or graphic, and most NFC case manufacturers also include plenty of art or graphics that can be used to display on the case. Budget NFC smartphone cases come with a monochrome e-ink display, mid-range options offer a three coloured e-ink display, while high-end options offer a four-coloured e-ink screen, which offers more vibrant picture quality.
The beauty of an NFC phone case is the fact that it does not require a battery, as an unpowered or passive NFC chip can transmit without power and can harvest energy from the system’s environment. This won’t affect the smartphone’s battery life, as this power requirement is very low.
The coloured e-ink display on an NFC smartphone case can then display the image on the back of your phone. Given the nature of an e-ink display, it can retain a specific picture as long as needed without requiring any additional power.
There aren’t any major downsides to an NFC smartphone case, at least for now, except for the fact that one has to install an additional app on their phone to use it. If you are looking for a new way to customise your smartphone and flaunt your style, then getting an NFC smartphone case is definitely one way to do it.
While there isn’t any known brand that makes NFC smartphone cases, there are several options, especially for Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone flagships, readily available across e-commerce platforms.
