If you’re stuck with a limited iPhone data plan and rely heavily on Wi-Fi to avoid punitive charges, spending £35 to vastly improve your reception when leeching from free hotspots might sound like a real bargain. That is, if the Linkase manages to deliver on its promise of boosting Wi-Fi reception by as much as 50 percent.

So how does it work? Well, that’s a bit of a gray area that seems to border on snake oil. The case uses a technology called EMW—or electro magnetic waveguide—to boost your iPhone 5′s signal snatching capabilities. But from the Linkase’s website, that actually seems to be a combination of a case that prevents your fingers from touching and covering the iPhone’s antenna, and an additional extending antenna that increases its reception prowess. Given this was the form factor for many handsets before the iPhone arrived, it’s not that surprising that it works. But does anyone really want to go back to having something sticking out of their sleek handsets?

[Absolute Technology]