Mophie Juice Pack Battery charger for the 3G: quick thoughts

[Tunnelrunner]

My Mophie juice charger came in the mail today. Some random thoughts:

-Definitely not the most sleek or elegant looking device. It adds some bulk, weight and size to the iPhone. I felt like I was carrying my old Treo 700p around again. It's great as a standalone charger but it'll never replace my gorgeous (and functional) black Speck grip case.

-I noticed when I put my iPhone in the Mophie charger, the home button DOES NOT WORK. To wake up my iPhone, I have to hit the on/off button at the top of the phone. Also, when using any apps, you won't be able to return to the homescreen because the home button stops working. Has anyone else had this problem?

-I don't like how hard it is to get the iPhone OUT of the charger. I realize the idea is to get it to fasten securely but there should have been some mechanism that makes it easy to take the phone out of the charger.

Overall, I see my Mophie charger as strictly an emergency use type of device (like when there are no wall outlets available, or when I'm hiking or camping, etc) - IMO, it's definitely not a replacement for a bodycase for the iPhone when it comes to everyday functional use (ie: Speck, etc.).

 

[JustinHorn]

I will get mine on Monday

 

[Rene Ritchie]

Thanks for the write up. Definitely a creative way around swapping batteries.

 

[JustinHorn]

Overall, I see my Mophie charger as strictly an emergency use type of device (like when there are no wall outlets available, or when I'm hiking or camping, etc) - IMO, it's definitely not a replacement for a bodycase for the iPhone when it comes to everyday functional use (ie: Speck, etc.).

The mophie isn't really sold as a case replacement, it's just a battery.

 

[Tunnelrunner]

Dizzy,

I can't remember where I saw it, but I thought Mophie themselves were saying something to the effect that "there's never a reason to take the iPhone out of the charger case," in effect promoting it as a dual charger/ body case - but I'm not completely sure of that.

At any rate, it's too brick-like to be a good functional case, IMO. Lemme know what you think when you get it.

 

[jamesus]

Thanks for the review.

 

[JustinHorn]

At any rate, it's too brick-like to be a good functional case, IMO. Lemme know what you think when you get it.

Hmm... I've heard other reviews of it say it kind of acts like a basic case for the back of the phone, but never noticed mophie promoting that themselves. I guess I'm kind of biased against the whole case issue since I don't use or want a case since the phone looks so nice

Have you had a chance to put it to the test as far as extending the battery life? That's my main concern. I probably will go caseless most of the time, but if I know I'm going to be stuck somewhere and want to play games to kill time or for trips to NYC wandering around all day with the GPS and subway map going it will def. be along for the ride

 

[Tunnelrunner]

Hmm... I've heard other reviews of it say it kind of acts like a basic case for the back of the phone, but never noticed mophie promoting that themselves. I guess I'm kind of biased against the whole case issue since I don't use or want a case since the phone looks so nice

Have you had a chance to put it to the test as far as extending the battery life? That's my main concern. I probably will go caseless most of the time, but if I know I'm going to be stuck somewhere and want to play games to kill time or for trips to NYC wandering around all day with the GPS and subway map going it will def. be along for the ride

In the 3 or so days that I've owned it, it seems to work fantastic as a cordless battery charger. Just plug your iphone in, and you're good to go. I haven't tried going like a whole day or anything (I see the Mophie as an "emergency backup" type of device - my first preference is to use the wall-charger. Also, the manual does suggest that you recharge the battery case itself every 3 months or so I figure I'd rather not waste the juice in the Mophie [no pun intented] if I don't have to.) - but judging from reviews of the 1st gen. Mophie, I'm sure you could probably go AT LEAST whole day of heavy-duty power usage without charging.

It's definitely nice to have both the wall-charger and the Mophie in my backpack just in case.

*ADDENDUM: One thing I need to reiterate is that once you plug your iPhone into the Mophie charger, the 'Home button' STOPS WORKING. At least for me that was the case. So if you plan on using the mophie extensively, be aware of this one caveat. Probably the one true criticism I have of it...

 

[JustinHorn]

*ADDENDUM: One thing I need to reiterate is that once you plug your iPhone into the Mophie charger, the 'Home button' STOPS WORKING. At least for me that was the case. So if you plan on using the mophie extensively, be aware of this one caveat. Probably the one true criticism I have of it...

Yeah, this seems very odd to me. I really hope that isn't the norm. I will have mine hopefully in the next few hours and will let you know.

 

[hermdog]

In the 3 or so days that I've owned it, it seems to work fantastic as a cordless battery charger. Just plug your iphone in, and you're good to go. I haven't tried going like a whole day or anything (I see the Mophie as an "emergency backup" type of device - my first preference is to use the wall-charger. Also, the manual does suggest that you recharge the battery case itself every 3 months or so I figure I'd rather not waste the juice in the Mophie [no pun intented] if I don't have to.) - but judging from reviews of the 1st gen. Mophie, I'm sure you could probably go AT LEAST whole day of heavy-duty power usage without charging.

It's definitely nice to have both the wall-charger and the Mophie in my backpack just in case.

*ADDENDUM: One thing I need to reiterate is that once you plug your iPhone into the Mophie charger, the 'Home button' STOPS WORKING. At least for me that was the case. So if you plan on using the mophie extensively, be aware of this one caveat. Probably the one true criticism I have of it...

Have you asked Mophie regarding this issue?

 

[JustinHorn]

Ok, I've had 5 mins to play with the mophie and here are a few quick things.

* The home button does work
* The phone didn't slide out that easy, but after about 30 secs I figured it out. You just grip the phone on the sides below the volume button and just pull and it comes out pretty easy.

The biggest downside for me is I was hoping it would be thinner, but it about doubles the thickness of the iPhone which makes it a bit large in my jeans front pocket. So this won't be an everyday thing to have b/c of this. The size isn't that bad considering the alternative. One time in NYC I was carrying around my NFT guide my iPod and my SLVR. So with this now I can cut that down to just the iPhone and mophie. This week is kind of hetic for me and I'm leaving saturday morning for philly, but hopefully by about wednesday of next week I can have a full review done. And Philly should be a good test for me and my mophie.

 

[Tunnelrunner]

That's interesting...your home button works. Yes, I'm gonna have to reach Mophie about this.

At any rate, glad you're liking it.

 

[hermdog]

I'd like to see a review comparing the Mophie with this thing:

FastMac | Product - iPhone External Battery Pack

 

[Tunnelrunner]

Hermdog:

Spoke with Mophie yesterday. This definitely NOT supposed to be a common occurance with the charger. Somehow I ended up with a crappy model...

 

[hermdog]

Hermdog:

Spoke with Mophie yesterday. This definitely NOT supposed to be a common occurance with the charger. Somehow I ended up with a crappy model...

Free replacement I presume?

 

[Tunnelrunner]

Yes, thank goodness.

 

[JustinHorn]

Ok, well I did my first round of testing today and was pretty impressed.

About 2 hours of phone calls, 45 mins of iPod, about 5-10 mins of web browsing, and light email (2 push account (Exchange / Ymail) and 1 manual gmail) usage throughout the day, mostly just reading emails.

I took it off the charger at about 9.30 AM EST and it died shortly before 12:30 AM EST. So basically I made it through the whole day without using my iPhone battery at all!

 

[Tunnelrunner]

UPDATE: Got my Mophie replacement today. Not only does the Home button work fine but it's VERY easy to slide the iPhone out of the charger if I want, so I'm quite sure that my original Mophie charger was defective.

Overall, good device for what it's supposed to do, but still bulky.

 

[JustinHorn]

my juice pack 3g review

Well I finally got some time and finished up my review of the new mophie juice pack 3g. In short I would recommend it even with its $99.95 price tag because it works well and still keeps the iPhone looking slick!

[review] mophie juice pack 3g for iPhone 3g | When Will Apple?

 

[Tunnelrunner]

Thanks for the review. I feel the same way for the most part. The price is a little steep for my liking, but I suppose this device pays itself off in time, especially for heavy users.