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Mophie Juice Pack Air review: Mophie Juice Pack Air

It costs a pretty penny, but for people who need more juice in their iPhone, the Juice Pack Air is worth every cent.

Joseph Hanlon Special to CNET News
Joe capitalises on a life-long love of blinking lights and upbeat MIDI soundtracks covering the latest developments in smartphones and tablet computers. When not ruining his eyesight staring at small screens, Joe ruins his eyesight playing video games and watching movies.
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Joseph Hanlon
2 min read

We've seen a handful of iPhone battery packs since the iPhone launched in Australia last year, the majority of them being packs that clip onto the base of your phone making it difficult to continue using your phone while the battery recharges. These are also troublesome if you use a protective casing as you might find you have to remove the casing to attach the battery. The Mophie Juice Pack Air kills two birds with one stone.

8.2

Mophie Juice Pack Air

The Good

Intelligent design. On/off switch lets you decide when to charge. LED clearly indicates remaining charge.

The Bad

Comparatively small battery capacity. Expensive.

The Bottom Line

It costs a pretty penny, but for people who need more juice in their iPhone, the Juice Pack Air is worth every cent.

Designed to fit snugly around your iPhone, the Juice Pack Air also acts as a protective shell while its 1200mAh battery recharges the iPhone's 1500mAh back to just short of a full charge. Unlike other similar batteries, the Juice Pack Air features an on/off switch for the battery, allowing you to choose when to recharge your phone rather than the iPhone sucking it dry automatically. You can monitor the battery's remaining charge with four LED indicators on the back of the cover.

To insert the iPhone into the case you first remove the top half, then replace it to lock the iPhone inside. We like that the protective covering envelopes the whole of the iPhone, unlike the Aigo aiPower which only covers the lower half of the phone. You recharge the Juice Pack Air via a bundled micro-USB cable, and while this is fine, we do wish we could use our iPhone charger instead.

Overall

There's no doubt that the Mophie Juice Pack Air is our favourite iPhone battery design. The combination of battery and protective covering is great and the way it fits perfectly around the handset is exactly what we want. Its 1200mAh capacity isn't the biggest extended battery available, but it's probably sufficient for most people's usage. It's also expensive, but if you're looking to extend your iPhone's battery life you can't go past this excellent unit.