I thought it would be helpful to all the iphone users out there to hear about how people are dealing with the iphone battery life.

I bought a Mophie Juice pack from here

The before photo

mophie_battery_pack

I now recharge my iphone every 2 days instead of daily and I use it a lot.

Cost: $99 USD

Shipping: $57.94 USD US to Australia  with UPS Worldwide Expedited service

which took about 4 days to arrive.

Australian Supplier located: www.streetwise.com.au for $169.95 plus shipping. They are located in Melbourne. Phone: (03) 9818 2100.

Battery Life: 2 days when using the juice pack and iphone together.

Using it:

  • put the iphone into the battery pack and attach the charge cable supplied to
    a usb port or iphone charger usb port and charge both at once. The iphone
    gets priority charges and then the battery pack
  • once detached from the charger the battery pack gets used first leaving
    the iphone full until the battery pack starts getting used.
  • I tend to leave the iphone in the battery pack unless I really need the slim
    size of the iphone in my jeans pocket.

Observations:

  • After 4 months it is still going strong, I get about the same battery life as when it was new.
  • some signs of wear and tear on corners of body
  • side soft rubber strips had the glue go soft, so I removed them and cleaned
    ‘most of’ the  glue residue off
  • occasionally while charging or being used the iphone starts rapidly switching between
    its own battery and the battery pack, it passes after a minute or I just lift
    the iphone out and put it back in. This is maybe a weekly occurance.

The after photo

iphone_mophie_battery_used_480

Conclusion: I would definately buy another one if I got a new iphone. Yes it does show

wear after 3 months of heavy use, but the peace of mind of having plenty of battery life

anytime at my disposal is important to me.

More Info:

  • Another  great review that helped me decide to buy it in the first place is here by
    Wayne Shultz from www.geardiary.com with the slightly older looking
    design. The raised bit where the iphone connects has a smaller sleeker gap.
  • link to this battery pack on mophie website is here

Alternatives

Thanks to Tony from iphonelomo.com whose comment  below  mentions another option which he is currently using I hadn’t heard about.

The InCase Powerslider. InCase website link here currently selling for $US79.95.

An excellent review has already been done here by David Chartier of arstechnica.com

Can’t see it available in any Australian stores as yet but InCase regular cases are stocked everywhere so here’s hoping the extended battery option makes it here too. Otherwise it would be another overseas shipping mission as was the Mophie.

If anyone knows of an Australian distributor please contact me and I will add it to this post.

incase_power_slider