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Mophie Juice Pack Air packs more power for your iPhone
May 15, 2009 (The Dallas Morning News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Regular readers know I'm an iPhone user, and one of my favorite accessories is anything that will add to my phone's battery life.
I've tried quite a few. Some clip to the bottom, some are shaped like packs of chewing gum and use a small cord, and some envelop the phone for easier use while the charge is taking place.
The Mophie Juice Pack Air ($79.95, www.mophie.com) falls squarely into that last category. This is the third battery I've tested from Mophie.
Like the original Juice Pack, and the Juice Pack for iPhone 3G, the Juice Pack Air is built like a small sled that attaches to the phone at the data connector.
The Juice Pack Air differs from the previous models by incorporating a second piece that encloses the battery to become a hard plastic protective case.
The design is genius.
I've used hard cases before and always thought it was a pain to remove them to use any type of external battery. Not anymore.
Functionally, the Juice Pack Air works just like its siblings. You attach the battery to your iPhone and use its battery to charge the phone.
One nice addition is an on-off switch for the battery.
Why would you want to have the battery installed but not charging? Battery life is longer when you use your iPhone's battery first and turn on the Juice Pack Air to recharge it when its power level gets low.
There is a four-LED power gauge on the back for checking your charge level and cutouts for all the control buttons and ports on all four sides.
The Juice Pack Air gets its charge from a micro USB port on the bottom. Micro USB is an up-and-comer; it's not as common as a plain old iPod dock connector or mini USB port.
The Juice Pack Air does ship with the appropriate cable for charging with any available USB port or with any USB/AC charger (not included). When the Juice Pack Air is on the phone, the iPhone charges first and then the Juice Pack charges. Nice touch.
So how does the battery life stack up?
The Juice Pack Air's battery has a capacity of 1200 mAh. The iPhone 3G's battery is rated at 1150 mAh. So battery life should double.
Mophie's stats indicate that you can expect 41/2 hours of talk time or Internet use on the 3G, 20 hours of audio playback and six hours of video playback. These are in line with what Apple promises.
My nonscientific testing didn't go that long. I let the iPhone battery drain to 7 percent and flipped on the Juice Pack. The external battery was able to charge the iPhone up to 95 percent. I could not get a 100 percent charge from the Juice Pack alone. But that's kind of nitpicky.
If you've used the previous Juice Pack, I think you'll appreciate the new design. The old sled design made it easy for the phone to slip out when you're removing it from a pocket. The new design is solid, and the slick plastic slides in and out of pockets with ease.
If you're looking for an external battery that works as advertised and doesn't look awful, especially during use, go to the Apple store and look at the Juice Pack Air.Pros: Great design, good battery life
Cons: MicroUSB cable not too common
Bottom line: Latest design is the best. Doubles battery life.
To see more of The Dallas Morning News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.dallasnews.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Dallas Morning News
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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