Many companies have answered the consumer cry for a bigger, better battery solution for the iPhone. As gorgeous and amazing as the device is,  its batt life just  doesn’t cut it for some people in a normal day of use. Some companies have responded with batteries that you attach to the bottom, some are attached by a wire, but it isn’t too often that you see the battery actually wrap around the whole device. Mophie calls their solution the iPhone Juice Pack, with a battery so juicy it can recharge your iPhone at least once over. I’ve been putting the Juice Pack to the test for the last couple of weeks and was quite surprised with the results.

Hit the jump for more words and shiny pictures!

Physical Design

The design is quite simple. You insert your iPhone as if the pack were a dock, and four LEDs on the back will tell you how much battery life is left. The pack has its own dock connector, so you can charge both the phone and the pack over AC or USB. Syncing isn’t supported on the iPhone 2G model, though.

Removing the iPhone is also a simple affair: just hook your fingers under the speaker/mic grills to pull the phone out.

As for looks, this one’s really a matter of taste at the end of the day. Not everyone is going to like seeing their iPhone wearing what is essentially an exo suit for a cellphone, but I loved Aliens and I think this thing is awesome (I imagine the inner green tint is actually that alien acid blood). Mophie’s little exo suit is covered in a rubberized exterior that nullifies visible fingerprints and really helps with the grip of the phone. The back, bottom, and bottom-half of the sides are all protected in a vice grip. You can hold the Pack upside down and your iPhone won’t fall out (pictured below).

  
Placing the iPhone in the Juice Pack is akin to pumping it full of steroids, and I really appreciate the extra meat on the bones here. I found using the iPhone for extended periods of time (e-book reading) a lot easier on my hands because the thing was finally easy enough to hold in one hand. On the other hand, the Juice Pack doesn’t add so much bulk that you can’t fit the phone back in your pocket.

Battery Life

The Mophie has been my daily driver for quite a while now, and while I appreciate the extra battery life, I’m definitely a little confused as to how much more the pack really seems to offer. The idling of the battery is fine, and it has stayed at four LEDs (pretty much max) for a full 24 hours. But while actually using the things? I once ran out of battery in five hours of use. None of it was particularly strenuous (just music and texting, light surfing every hour or so), but the batt went from full at 12 noon to dead at 5 PM. I’ve been able to go full days with the Mophie keeping its charge, but those weren’t instances of heavy usage.

After all this time, my best guess at the Mophie’s recharging capability is probably 60-70% of the iPhone’s battery. I think your iPhone will definitely out-last the Mophie on its own, but it’s also at least 60% better off with the thing attached. What’s more is that the iPhone will actually draw from the Mophie’s battery before its own, so if all goes well you can just jettison the pack like an empty rocket thruster once it’s empty and blast off into space with your full power iPhone. That’s one small step for a phone…

Convenience

I can’t think of a more convenient mobile charging solution than the Mophie. I have a mobile charger that can recharge the iPhone twice over (and then some), but I’ve got to dock my phone to the battery through a wire. It’s cumbersome. The Mophie, on the other hand, is that awesome mid-air refuelling plane that docks to other cool iPhones – err, airplanes. The Juice Pack is that quick and easy boost to your battery life when you need to charge and use your phone at the same time.

The Mophie site says you never need to take the phone out of the pack, and this is actually a pretty reasonable prospect outside of those times you need to sync the iPhone up (c’mon iTunes wi-fi sync). If I could have one extra wish for the Mophie, it would be a belt clip for the Juice Pack. I think it’d be pretty cool to use the pack as a hi-tech, recharging holster.

There are a few things that crop if you use the Juice Pack for an extended period of time. One thing you’ll have to get used to is the fact that your device is effectively perpetually in a charging state. What does that mean for you? No more wallpaper, and if you play music while using the pack you’re going to have to remember to turn the screen off yourself, since the phone will never fall asleep while something is playing.

Protection

One could think of the Mophie Juice Pack as a case, and I thought this was a pretty cool idea. Unfortunately, the thing really is designed as a portable battery first, and a case second. The case is hard all around, and there’s no felt lining or soft fabric to keep your iPhone protected from scratches. As a result, the Mophie is actually the first accessory to mar the back of my iPhone. It’s got one scratch going right down the left side of the Apple logo. I’d love to tell some tale of how the iPhone was fighting off a dragon and came away with just one scratch, but it’s really just a mundane story about a piece of dust getting caught between the iPhone and the Pack and making a very unsettling grinding noise.

Conclusion

Mophie calls their battery a Juice Pack, so let’s stick with that imagery for the finish. The idea of a juice pack brings those tetra packs to mind. There are a lot of different flavours out there, but Mophie only offers Apple. You can re-fill your Apple with more energy whenever you want to, and the recharging process is about as unobtrusive as they come, but I’ve always been left pretty thirsty after finishing one off. The juice packs are a great idea, and they’re ridiculously convenient, but for the amount of money ($100 for this apple juice), I’d have liked for Mophie to jam(m) just a little more juice into it.

Extra Info

Website: Mophie

Price: $99.95

Models Supported: iPhone 2G only. iPod Touch and iPhone 3G support in separate models

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