Mophie Juice Pack Air for iPhone reviewed
October 5, 2009 by Paul Willen
Filed under Apple iPhone, Phones
Since I own my iPhone 3GS, I’ve only come up with one downside: Its battery life. When the day is long I really need to be careful not to use the iPhone a lot, because the battery might not make it through the whole day. The Morphie Juice Pack Air is a solution to this problem.
Extra Battery & Protective Case
The Morphie Juice Pack Air is not only an extra battery for your iPhone. It is also a protective case.
When you think about protective cases; you think of extra size and weight. And Yes, the Morphie Juice Pack Air adds weight and size to your iPhone. To put it in numbers here are the specifications of the dimensions:
| iPhone 3GS | iPhone 3GS & Morphie Juice Pack Air | |
| Length | 115,5 mm (4.5 inches) | 124,5 mm (4.9 inches) |
| Width | 62,1 mm (2.4 inches) | 65,8 mm (2.59 inches) |
| Thickness | 12,3 mm (0.48 inches) | 19,5 mm (0.75 inches) |
| Weight | 135 gram (4.56 Oz) | 199 gram (6.72 Oz) |
Look & Feel
The Morphie Juice Pack Air consist out of 2 parts. The bottom part, in which you slide the iPhone, and the top part which keeps the case and the iPhone together
On top there is a free space for the headphones and the power-button. The right part has an opening for the mute and volume buttons.
On the bottom of the Juice pack there is a power-switch for the Morphie’s battery. If this is switched to “green” the iPhone gets charged via the Morphie. If this is switched to “red” the iPhone uses it’s own battery.
On the bottom left there is a USB-connector. This connector sadly is not the standard iPhone connector, but a specific connector from Morphie. The Morphie USB cable is included, but nevertheless I hoped they used a more standard cable and connector.
On the back there is an opening for the camera. On the bottom from the backside there is an indicator button and 4 LED’s to show how full the Juice Pack Air is charged.
Added Battery capacity
The Juice Pack has an on- and off button. When the Juice Pack is turned “on” and the iPhone is in the Juice Pack the battery of the iPhone is charged untill 100%. When the iPhone’s battery reached 100% the power of the Juice Pack is used untill that battery is drained. After the battery of the Juice Pack is drained, the iPhones battery is used.
The battery capacity of the Morphie Juice Pack Air is 1200mAh. My experiences are that when I use the iPhone A LOT I can’t make it through the day with the built-in battery.
Now when I use the Morphie Juice Pack Air I let the battery of the iPhone drain to around 30% when. This usually is around 4-5 PM. Then I turn on the Juice Pack Air. Now the iPhone will charge back to 100%. When the iPhone is back at 100% (usually around 70-90 minutes later) I have used a lot of the capacity of the Juice Pack Air (normally 1 or 0 LED’s light up when checking after a charge from 30-100 %).
This comes down to when it’s around 10 PM the iPhone is still charged for around 80%.
The Morphie Juice Pack Air really brings me more than enought battery capacity to make it though the day. Even when I use a lot of power, like a 3 hour wifi-skype conference call, the iPhone isn’t completly empty at the end of the day.
Thoughts & Wrap-up
To find out if the extra weight and size is acceptable to you, I would suggest to go to an Apple store that sells the Morphie Juice Pack Air and try out. I did too and realized that for me the extra weight and size is not as much as I expected. With the Morphie Juice Pack Air I really don’t have to worry anymore if the battery of the iPhone makes it through the day. I know that I have more than enough Juice with me.
His first mobile phone was a Mitshubishi Galaxy and after that the first Orange SPV running Microsoft Smartphone 2002. After owning a lot of devices he now mainly uses a HTC Touch Pro 2 and an iPhone 3Gs 32GBPaul is employed as an .NET Application Developer with a focus on Sharepoint.
I realize this review is old but I’m hoping this’ll still be seen. I own a 3Gs as well and cannot in any way get a 100% recharge from the Mophie as you state. Best is 70%. Has yours truly and consistently brought you back to 100% all this time? I, too, let it drain down to 30% or less and then don’t use the phone again until it’s recharged but it seems to top out at 70%.
Hello Scruffx
Yes, we are sill seeing the comments to all our posts. I can confirm when my battery is down to 30% and then charge using the morphie it will bring my iPhone’s battery back to 100%.
So I definitely get passed the 70% you mention.
How old is your Morphie? Did you buy it new?
I will do a full charge with the morphe today and will report back how it went.
Paul
Wow, thanks for replying. It’s brand new (got last week) and I actually swapped it out for a replacement because of your post. I have a 3Gs though. You have a 3g?
Sorry, I see you have a 3Gs too, duh. Very strange then. Will contact the company now. Yes, very interested in your test today, esp. since yours is a year old. I let mine drain to 20% when it turns red, then flick the Mophie switch, I left the phone alone (did not use it at all), waited, and the max it reached was 70%. Am trying to find out if mine is defective (again).
I tried yesterday and this is my result:
I’ve started charging the iPhone battery with the Morphie Juice Pack air when the battery was at 30%. When the charge was ready the iPhone’s battery got to 85%. BUT I’ve used the iPhone during charge time. I made a few calls (around 10 minutes-15 minutes total call-time) and played about 5-10 minute a game via WIFI.
Hope this will be enough information to you.
Paul
Thanks very much for testing it out. I contacted Mophie and they, at first, concurred with your 100% assessment. So then I wrote back to clarify that I was using a 3Gs, to which they changed it to “at least 70%.” Hmmm. My phone usage is probably more than avg (I use the calendar a lot) and I usually flick the switch only when it gets to 20%. So I’ll try 30% and will see if I come close to your 85% with some minimal use during charging. I’m curious — maybe you got 100% before because you didn’t drain it too low, like maybe only down to 50%? Then it’d make sense that the 1200mAh was enough to power it up back to a full 100%. No worries though because at least now I know that 100% is pretty darn rare and certainly not the norm for the 3Gs.
About the USB connector, it is probably “more standard” than the iPhone/iPod connector. Also the iPhone will sync through it. Good enough for me.