Announced earlier in the year, Powermat’s latest technology - an iPhone 4 battery case and cradle - are about to hit UK shops on Monday 15 November, and we’ve been sent one ahead of the game to have a play.

Available at the Carphone Warehouse, the company is offering a series of options including some bundles that will let you buy a complete charging system for your phone if you’re new to the Powermat offering.

For those not sure what Powermat is, it's an induction charging system that means once you’ve put a special case on your phone, or in some cases inserted a special battery, you only have to lay your phone on a special mat for it to start charging.

For owners of the Apple iPhone 4, the one that you’ll be most interested in is a new slimline case that adds very little bulk to the overall design of the phone, covers up the aerial so you don’t lose reception and lets you dock it in a cradle that keeps it snug.

Slipping the case over the iPhone 4 is easy, the docking connector at the bottom becomes a mini USB socket and getting to the buttons on the side is relatively easy, although we did struggle with the mute button.

The case adds around 1cm to the length of the phone.

If the iPhone isn’t your phone of choice, Powermat has released other new cases and batteries to appeal to other users. Perhaps not seeing that the Nokia N97 wasn’t going to be the success Nokia made out it would be, those that did opt for the QWERTY keyboard packing phone can get new backs and battery options for the Nokia N97.

More relevant however for BlackBerry users will be a new backing case for the BlackBerry Bold 9700 series including the new BlackBerry 9780.

Both sets will cost £49.99 for the case and the cradle combo.

As for the cradles, if you want to charge two devices at once (his and hers) then you’ll have to pay £59.99 for the one featured in the photos, while one that charges three devices at the same time (now you really are showing your love for Powermat) will cost you £79.99.