Do you find that you do not have enough battery on the iPhone to get you through the day? One solution is to purchase extra chargers and top off the battery at work, in the car, or other outlets on the go. A better solution is a battery case. A battery case is a charger and protective case built in to one.
I have had the pleasure of testing the Mophie Juice Pack Air for the last few days on my iPhone. It is a good solution for the power user on the go, those who travel a lot and don’t have time to charge their iPhone, or those who sometimes forget to charge their phone at the end of the day.
Before I started using the Juice Pack Air, my phone would be almost depleted at the end 
of the day. On occassion I would get the dreaded low battery warning around 7 or 8 PM. With the Juice Pack Air I did not have the same issues, I could easily get through the day and sometimes the next day with out ever seeing a charger, but this convenience is not with out some cost to the owner.
Here are the issues I have found in using the case:
- The case adds some bulk and weight to the sleekly designed iPhone. I would say that the phone is about twice as thick with the case on and also about 2X as heavy. However if you run out of battery a sleek, thin, dead iPhone does you no good.
- The case does not use the standard charger. You have to use a mini USB chord in its place. Forget about docking stations, radio chargers, in car iPhone plugs, etc, with out removing the iPhone from the case.
- Perhaps the biggest drawback in my testing was the lack of support for some third party chargers. For example I would plug the mini USB charger in at the end of the day and in the morning the case would be charged but the internal battery on the phone would not. On other occasions it would charge the case battery and the iPhone battery as expected. So it was hit or miss when it came to charging with my third party iPhone wall charger.
There are a couple of strategies you can employ while using this case. The case has an on off switch on the bottom. With the case in the on position it will provide constant charge to the iPhone’s internal battery keeping it at 100%, when the case’s battery is depleted you will continue to run on the iPhone’s internal battery until it is depleted. In my testing the case kept the iPhone fully charged until mid afternoon. Another option is to leave the switch on the case in the off position, then the case can be turned on when the iPhone battery is depleted and the case will recharge it. In my testing using this method I was able to provide almost two complete recharges to the phone before the battery in the case was depleted. I believe using the second option will provide you the most battery time for your iPhone.
The case retails for $99, but can be found for around $80. It comes in black, white, and the odd looking purple.
If you find your self running out of battery before the iPhone day is complete and can live with the drawbacks mentioned above, I would recommend this case highly. It will easily double the useable battery life on the iPhone to give you more time to surf, listen to music, and watch video on the iPhone.
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