Hands-on review: Mophie Juice Pack for iPhone

This rugged case for the iPhone does double-duty as a battery booster, giving you many more hours of surfing, chatting, tunes, and video. Read on for my hands-on review.

Sure, there are plenty of external battery packs available that’ll charge your iPhone or iPod on the go, but (as I’ve ranted before) I’m a sucker for the case/battery pack combo. I bought iLuv’s i603 iPod battery case last summer for an eight-hour flight to Spain, during which I went on a non-stop “Band of Brothers” bender, with plenty of juice to spare.

Strangely enough, given the glut of iPhone cases and accessories out there, the Mophie Juice Pack is the only iPhone case I’ve found that does the battery-boosting trick—and after months of waiting (it was supposed to ship a couple of months ago), I finally took the Mophie for a spin this week. (In case you’re wondering, the Juice Pack is for the iPhone only, not the iPod Touch...bummer.)

The Mophie itself weighs in at about 2.9 ounces, and adds about a quarter-inch of bulk to the iPhone—so no, it's not ideal for day-to-day use, but perfectly acceptable for the plane. The Mophie’s treated shell has a rubberized feel, and it seems reasonably tough, although there’s a good chance your iPhone will pop out if you dropped it far enough. (Sorry folks, but I paid $600 for my iPhone, so don’t expect a torture test.)

Once you plug your iPhone into the Mophie, it starts charging—unfortunately, you can’t turn off the flow of juice, so don’t slide your phone into place until you’re ready for the extra power. Push a button on the back of the Mophie and an LED meter lights up, telling you how much battery life is left.

I tested the Mophie on my fully charged iPhone, and I managed to squeeze out seven hours of video—and that’s before my iPhone’s own internal battery took over, so you can count on another four to five hours after that, good for a pretty lengthy plane ride. (The Mophie's specs promise 250 extra hours of stand-by time, 24 hours of music, eight more hours of talk time, and six additional hours of Web surfing.)

After my drain test, it took about 4.5 hours to fully recharge the Mophie—not bad, if not exactly lightening-fast.

My biggest complaint about the Mophie Juice Pack is, unfortunately, the $99 sticker price—way steep, considering you can get a decent (if bulky) external battery pack for as little as $40. Bring the price down to $70 or less, and we’d really have something.

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