Tech on the Go Meets the Mophie Juice Pack Air

Performance
Performance of a product like the Juice Park Air is difficult to gauge. On the one had you could place a consistent drain on the device and see how long it can maintain the load. However, that is not indicative of the way the device would be used in the real world.  Most of us will vary our usage patterns from minute to minute even if we are attempting to complete a particular task, or engaging in a particular event. So for us we decided to test the Juice Pack Air in real world terms. Although Mophie says that the Juice Pack Air comes ready to use, we chose to allow it to fully charge before we began our testing.

We tested our iPhone 3G S without any case or battery from a full charge to 20% battery life to get a base number for comparison. The iPhone we used is jailbroken but not unlocked. Running applications are SBSettings, Intelliscreen, White Apple HD Theme. Before each test began we used SBSettings to free up memory.

For our "naked" testing we found that our typical battery life is roughly 30 hours. Using the Juice Pack like an emergency battery we were able to extend that out to just over 55 hours. This is roughly double the life we saw without the Juice Pack Air. Interestingly, when we turned on the Juice Pack Air to recharge the iPhone it was only able to get us back to 86%. We were also surprised that the Juice Pack Air was depleted in less than two hours.

Our next test was to use the Juice Pack air "live" in conjunction with the iPhone’s - to get both the Juice Pack Air and the iPhone back to 100% charge took a five hours to complete; after they both had a full charge we began our testing.

The Mophie Juice Pack Air was depleted in 17 hours and 20 minutes while the iPhone was able to hold out for another 36 hours and five minutes. This gives a total life of 55 hours and 25 minutes. Not quite close to the 240 hours of stand-by time that Mophie claims, but still not bad at all.

Value
The Mophie Juice Pack Air is not cheap. To get this roughly doubling of battery life you are going to shell out $80.00. This is a lot of money for a battery no matter how thin you slice it. Still if you do need the extended life on your iPhone it is worth the money in the end. To add the Hip Holster 6000 you will need to add an additional $30 to the price tag. The pair is a little expensive but after using them I think that the cost, while worth it, could be lower.

Conclusion
The Mophie Juice Pack Air is an interesting product. While it does not match the claims on the box it does manage to extend the life of our iPhone 3G S considerably. This extension would have been a huge benefit in the week of CES 2010. During that time I found that my iPhone would barely hold a charge for a full day. The Juice Pack Air provides this extra life without adding too much bulk or weight. After using it for a period of about two weeks the weight was not even noticeable while the life of our iPhone 3G S was most welcome. The price is something of an issue [we feel that a price of around $50-$60 would be better], however this price is not out of the range for this type of product. We also hope that Mophie can find a fix for the finger print issue we saw with the Black Case we tested. The Hip Holster 6000 is also well made and as we have mentioned is a great companion for any oversized case.

The Mophie Juice Pack Air is a good product for those that need the extra life, and do not mind the price. For our part we know that the Juice Pack Air will be a permanent part of our travel gear [including camping]. We will just be sure to bring a cleaning cloth with it.