This $50 case turns your phone into an e-reader minus the benefits of an e-reader

Astropad’s new Bookcase is a smartphone accessory designed to make reading on a smartphone feel more like reading on an e-reader. No, it doesn’t give your phone an easy-on-the-eyes screen, longer battery life, or any other features that have made devices like the Kindle popular. Instead, for $50 the Bookcase is really just designed to make a smartphone easier to hold like a book, while making your favorite reading app more accessible.

The Bookcase is essentially a magnetic attachment that adds chunky plastic handles on either side of your phone, making it roughly the size and shape of a paperback novel or an e-reader. Astropad says “any smartphone that can be attached to a magnetic wireless charger can be used with the Bookcase” even while it’s in a separate protective case, but the company also includes a MagSafe conversion kit for “Android phones and older-model iPhones.”

But being easier to grip isn’t what has kept e-readers popular for decades; it’s the distraction-free reading experience. That’s something else Astropad is attempting to replicate using an NFC chip and a new mobile app. You can configure your phone to automatically open your preferred reading app when it’s attached to the Bookcase, and even temporarily turn off notifications and other distractions. Astropad doesn’t say if the Bookcase app can go so far as to prevent you from accessing apps like TikTok while you’re reading.

Astropad is a small company that has made a name for itself with apps and accessories that turned iPads into Wacom-like drawing tablets and wireless displays — at least until it was Sherlocked by Apple.

Bookcase is another attempt by the company to make a device more useful. Making your phone a better tool for reading so you can leave your e-reader at home is appealing, but you’ll still be carrying around an accessory that’s just as large. If version two were to introduce an folding design, the Bookcase might be an easier sell.