Meet Swippitt, a $600 toaster that makes sure your iPhone is always charged

It’s a first-world problem: You can never have enough iPhone battery life, and charging, despite it being faster than ever, is never fast enough. Swippitt offers a different approach to battery charging–if you’re willing to pay the price.

Swippitt is a two-part system. The first is Swippitt Link, a battery case for the iPhone. The second is a toaster-like device called the Swippitt Hub that houses and charges five batteries that work in the Link case. When you insert the Swippitt Link-encased iPhone into the Hub, the battery in the Link is swapped out with one of the charged batteries in the Hub. See the video below for a demonstration of how it works.

So to call Swippitt a “battery charger” isn’t accurate, though it does charge batteries, but just the ones for the Swippitt Link. It’s really a battery system, where the Hub swaps out batteries with the Link case, and then charges the swapped battery. Swapping out the battery takes only a few seconds–a lot faster than waiting for a fast charge via USB. The Hub holds five batteries and uses proprietary software to manage the batteries so that they’re ready to be swapped. Since it holds five batteries, a Hub can support up to five users.

Swippitt is compatible with the iPhone 14, 15, and 16 models, and the company says it will create new Link cases should Apple introduce new iPhones designs.

This charging convenience has a hefty price, starting at $450 for the Swippitt Hub which measures a sizeable 13.2 by 11.4 by 6.8 inches (335.6 by 288.7 by 172.5 mm), and $120 for the Swippitt Link case. The device starts shipping in June and the company is accepting pre-orders with a 30-percent discount during the Consumer Electronic Show this week.