For the past year, my iPhone 14 Pro has continued to be my daily driver. Despite testing out a variety of Android phones since joining Digital Trends, I’ve continued to go back to my iPhone as my primary phone.
Since it’s my primary smartphone, that means I pretty much do everything on it. I send texts through iMessage, check all my social networks and email and work messages, listen to Apple Music, watch YouTube or Disney+, snap 1,000 photos every day of my toddler daughter, and spend an embarrassing amount of time playing Disney Emoji Blitz. And that’s just most of the things I can recall off the top of my head.
I live in Southern California, and we’ve been suffering through an extreme heat wave at the tail end of summer. With all the activity I do on my iPhone 14 Pro, I notice that it tends to get very warm during usage, especially if I’m also charging.
My phone’s current Battery Health capacity reads 91%, and this is a launch day iPhone 14 Pro, so it hasn’t even been a full year yet. It’s a bit disappointing, to say the least, as I feel that the iPhone 14 Pro has struggled a lot with battery life over previous models.
So it piqued my interest when BodyGuardz recently launched a new case, the Paradigm Pro, that it claims regulates heat dissipation from the iPhone itself, which can also help the battery last longer. That’s a bold claim to make, so I got curious and gave it a try.
What’s so special about the BodyGuardz Paradigm Pro?
On the surface, the Paradigm Pro looks like any other iPhone case. It’s made with recycled materials and has a slim profile.
But then you take a look at the inside, and you’ll see an interesting lining, along with the MagSafe ring. The interior of the case is lined with a layer of BodyGuardz EnduraCore cooling gel material. The heat-regulating material of this gel layer is similar to what can be found inside electric cars to keep their batteries cool.
There are also integrated vents along the sides of the case. These are designed to let air flow through the case and prevent overheating. There are two more openings along the bottom lip of the screen, which act as directional speaker ports to improve overall sound.
Does it actually work?
Of course, all of that is marketing mumbo jumbo. The important question is: Does it actually work? In short, yes, I do feel a slight difference with the Paradigm Pro compared to other cases — and I’ve tried a lot of cases.
To ensure that the case lives up to its claims, I bought an infrared thermometer gun to actually see what temperature my iPhone 14 Pro, when placed in the Paradigm Pro case, would be in various scenarios. Here’s what I got.
Every night, I plug my phone in and put it inside my PhoneSoap UV sanitizer on my nightstand (thanks, COVID) while I shower. About 30 minutes later, I take it out and check the temperature: 104.1 degrees on the back of the case around the center of the MagSafe ring. I imagine that the UV lights get pretty warm, so I wasn’t surprised. I did see a message on my iPhone saying that charging was put on hold and will resume once it reaches a normal temperature.
So, I took my iPhone off the charger and used it — I checked Facebook, Threads, Mastodon, and then played Disney Emoji Blitz until I ran out of lives, which took about 50 minutes in total. At this point, another temperature check read 95.5 degrees.
While working in my non-air-conditioned office, the room temperature was 84 degrees, and I placed my iPhone 14 Pro on my Anker MagSafe charging stand. The screen temperature read 102.9 degrees after a few minutes of charging. I took it off after about 15 minutes, and it was 106.1 degrees. I used it normally for about five minutes, and then the temperature dropped to 98.2 degrees and then 93 degrees once five more minutes passed. Once another 12 minutes passed, and I got a reading of 92.3 degrees while the room temperature was 85 degrees.
To make sure that the Paradigm Pro case works better than others in terms of actually regulating the iPhone’s temperature, I checked how the temperatures would be with one of my other cases. For this, I compared it to a cute Velvet Caviar MagSafe case (the last one I was using before switching to BodyGuardz) right after doing the last temperature check in the Paradigm Pro (92.3 degrees).
The moment I put the Velvet Caviar case on and placed it on the MagSafe charging stand in an 85-degree room, the screen temperature read 94.2 degrees. After 15 minutes, the back of the case read 100.7 degrees. Roughly five minutes after, I took it off the charger, then played some Disney Emoji Blitz, and the temperature read 96.2 degrees. I let seven more minutes pass, and it read 94.6 degrees. All of this was in a room that was 86 degrees.
So, what did we learn? My iPhone 14 Pro actually got hotter in the Paradigm Pro case when it was charging, though this might be due to the fact that the phone did charge more with the Paradigm Pro (it started the charge at around 65% battery), so by the time I had put the Velvet Caviar case on, it seemed to be more of a trickle charge past 80%. But when I was actually using my iPhone off the charger, it did keep the phone a bit cooler.
In other words, the case does seem to work, even if just a little bit. But even so, a degree or two isn’t that big of a difference.
I also don’t think it has done a lot to save my daily battery life, as my iPhone 14 Pro’s overall battery health seems to be on a steady decline anyway.
Is the Paradigm Pro worth it?
I’ve had the Paradigm Pro on my iPhone 14 Pro for the past several days, and I have felt that it’s more comfortable to use overall. I haven’t felt my phone get too hot to hold with the case on, which I can’t exactly say for other cases I’ve been using, especially in this hot Southern California summer. And even when it does, it seems to cool off quicker than other cases.
The rest of the case is also quite nice. The material gives it a nice overall grip, and it even comes with an integrated lanyard toward the bottom center, which also acts as an anchor point. However, if you’re not a lanyard person, you can remove it. I also enjoy cases with really great buttons, and the Paradigm Pro has nice and clicky button covers that provide excellent tactile feedback when pressed.
Despite the slim profile, it has 18-foot drop protection, so it’s quite tough and durable. The product is also treated to resist microbial growth, so no yucky stuff will grow on it. And, of course, it has MagSafe, so your favorite accessories (such as the new round MagSafe PopSockets) will work flawlessly.
The Paradigm Pro is a bit simpler than I’d like in terms of aesthetics (I love fun cases with Disney designs or other cute prints), as it only comes in two solid colors. But it’s proven to be quite nice to have, especially when it’s hotter than Hades.
