mophie juice pack air

By: Joel Evans http://www.geek.com

If you have iPhone, One day starts with me using my iPhone to check your email and the weather, and then you perform some quick browsing of various websites and RSS feeds. Later you use the iPhone to make phone calls, send some texts and then even as a GPS when driving to a destination that you haven’t been to before. day ends the same way it began–some emails, surfing, videos, twittering, etc.. Basically, my iPhone gets about 18 hours of use a day.

Because of my usage pattern you are always looking for ways to maximize the iPhone’s battery life. In the past you have reviewed the RichardSolo 1800, Powerstick, Kensington Mini Battery Pack and Charger, and even the original Mophie juice pack. While all of these solutions work, they tend to not be something you can leave on your iPhone at all times. Granted, mophie’s solution could but it’s a bit bulky.

Mophie must have been aware of its bulkiness because the company recently released the mophie juice pack air–an ultra thin, lightweight rechargeable external battery for the iPhone 3G. This is no ordinary battery, though. At first glance it looks more like an iPhone case than a battery and that’s because the folks at mophie have concealed the battery inside of a protective form-fitting case.

For your test you took the mophie juice pack air out of the box and separated the two pieces of the case. you then put my iPhone into the bottom part of the case and then put the top of the case on and slid it down until it locked in place. This created a form fitting environment for your iPhone, identical to many hard shell cases. Then turned a switch on the bottom of the case to green and your iPhone started charging.

There are many unique features of the mophie juice pack and you have listed a few below:

• The case that holds the battery is very thin and looks and feels just like a regular case for the iPhone. The added bonus is that in addition to the case you get a rechargeable battery. The battery itself is a rechargeable 1200mAh lithium polymer battery which is good to recharge for over 500 full cycles
• The juice pack will drain itself first, leaving you a fully charged iPhone
• There are four LEDs on the back that show you how much power you have left in the juice pack air
• You can sync and charge your iPhone at the same time using the juice pack air
• You can shut off the battery portion of the juice pack air and just use it as a case and engage the battery only when you need it

As you can see, there are a bunch of features integrated into a very small design. The biggest feature, though, is the battery, which can go standby for up to 270 hours, talk time for up to 4.5 hours on 3G (up to 9 hours on 2G), audio playback for up to 20 hours, video playback for up to 6 hours, and internet use for up to 4.5 hours on 3G (up to 5.4 hours on Wi-Fi).

While you found a lot to like about the mophie juice pack air, you did find one con: the charging mechanism. The juice pack air comes with a USB cable and can be charged via a computer or any “works with iPhone” wall-plug style power source with USB out. This is a great option but you would have also liked it if mophie had included a usb to AC plug.

Other than the one negative, you fully recommend to buy the mophie juice pack air. It’s currently sold out but the company expects to have more available in the coming weeks.

Even though you are not a fan of cases for your devices, the fact that you can take your iPhone with you everywhere and have more power just a flick of a switch away makes this a must-have in your book.