Have you ever had your iPhone battery die on you because you weren’t able to charge it during the day? Maybe you simply left your car charger in your other car. Fret not, Mophie has a battery pack that will not only charge your iPhone, but it acts as a nice case to protect your iPhone from dings.
Table of Contents
Enter Solution
Mophie makes an external battery pack that doubles as an iPhone case, it’s called the Mophie Juice Pack Air. The Juice Pack Air can charge your battery when it’s low, or it can charge your battery as if your iPhone was plugged into an electrical outlet. However, the latter of the two solutions is not the best. While your getting a full charge on your iPhone, your Mophie Juice Pack Air’s battery is draining. So, the best solution is to only use it when your battery is low.
You might be asking yourself, “Well how can I make sure I’m only using it when it’s low?” Glad you asked. There is an on/off switch at the bottom of the case that allows you to control when you want to charge your iPhone. Previous models did not have this feature. Looks like Mophie listened to their customers and added this.
I have purchased two Mophie Juice Pack Airs. One for my iPhone, and one for my wife’s iPhone. We are Annual Pass Holders at Disneyland in Southern California. This nifty little battery pack has saved our butts more than once while we were at the Park. Usually by late afternoon, our iPhone’s batteries are almost drained. That’s when we flip the switch, and viola instant battery recharge. Disneyland now offers free recharging of devices at the camera store on Main Street. Which is great, however, you have to have the plug and leave your iPhone with them.
Room for Improvement
With such a great device, you might be wondering why I’m saying that the Mophie Juice Pack Air needs improvement. Here are my reasons: There are two things that I see that could be improved upon. The first is, when you are in a poor signal area, your iPhone will drop a call, and show “No Service”. This is while the iPhone is in the Juice Pack Air case. This happens when the battery is been charged, or not being charged. My guess is, the battery is blocking the Antenna in some way. Otherwise in great signal areas you don’t see a signal drop.
The second thing that I would like to see improved upon is the way the Mophie Juice Pack Air is charged. It employs a Micro-USB connector instead of the 30-Pin connector that is on the iPhone. I’m not sure if this was a design decision, or if it is a licensing decision. Whatever the case may be it makes it difficult to charge it in more than one place. The reason being people usually have more Mini-USB or Dock cables, myself included. This is an extra cost that’s not needed if the Juice Pack Air used a Mini-USB or Dock cable.
iPhone Battery Saving Tips
Here are a few battery saving tips:
- Turn off Bluetooth if your not connected to a Bluetooth device.
- Turn off Wi-Fi.
- Leave the brightness at the default setting, and enable Auto-Brightness.
- Turn 3G off if not needed. This is one option I always leave on.
These are just a few tips to help squeeze every last drop of battery life out of your iPhone.
Colors and Price
The Mophie Juice Pack Air comes in four different colors they are as follows:
- Red
- Purple
- White
- Black
The Mophie Juice Pack Air costs $79.95, you can order it on Mophie.com, or you can pick one up at your local Apple Store.
Overall, the Mophie Juice Pack Air is a great addition for your iPhone. Like I said earlier, it’s saved my butt more than once. I think if Mophie makes the improvements I wrote about, this would be an awesome device. I will now leave you with a Macgasm video podcast that aired a couple of weeks ago; in which Erin Blaskie gives her review of the Mophie Juice Pack Air. Click here to watch the video.
Photo Credit: Mophie Juice Pack Air Photos
