Mophie Juice Pack Air: iPhone 3G Accessory Review

What the article does not say it that the USB cable is not standard. It’s not a mini usb plug. So if you forget your cable or lose it, your in trouble.

Also, you have to buy it to know this detail because it’s not mentionned anywhere and of course the Apple store won’t take it back if it’s open. BEWARE!

It’s a no go for me.

this is a really sweet product,

however the reviwer failed to mention four things:

(1) three-way the charging cycle: mophie says that the juicepak DOES deliver charge to both batteries (internal & external) as well as enough power to also actually operate the iphone itself.

i find it hard to believe that the 1200mah model can do all three at the same time! ...

i havent done any detailed timing data yet, however my guess is that the charging for battery draws lower power (and therefore takes a longer time) when the operation of the iphone is also being powered throught the juiicepak's power input (a mini-usb power port .... which also supports data syncing ... a point also not raised by the review).

(2) the reviwer forgot to mention that there is also an 1800mah iphone3G charger from mophie ... but for some unfathomable reason it seems to have AFAIK a differerent (and misleading) name of 'AIR'!?

one presumes at this maH rating that the 1800 unit would be able to deliver charge for all three functions at full rate simultaneously!?

(3) the reviewer doesnt elaborate on one crucial detail about the life-cycle of the juicepak: how to know that oine has gone below the "current" chargecycle threshold - ie run the battery down to ≤10% of capacity.

mophie claims 500 FULL chargecycles before the juicepak will lose its ability to completely recharge

(this means that after the juicepak has consumed the baseline" 500 chrgecycles, then the ongoing top capacity of the battery will therefater be fall to only 80% of the original capacity -- ie you will lose at least 1 hour of charge capacity from the average of 4 hours that a juicepak will offer - when running full tilt with all the radios engaged - 3g, gps, wigi, bt).

however, morphie doesnt precisely define how to interpret the information provided by the 4 LED staus light (on the back) ....

does a single blinking light indicate that you have now crossed the Rubicon & are now operating below the (lifecycle critical) 10% charge level? .... or does only a zero light state consitute the confirmation that one is now using up one of the FULL 500 charge cycles?

not only does morphie not make this vital system management information explicity clear (a yellow or red LED would be much more obvious) - but morphie's user manual further complicates the determination of when you are being docked for a new chargecycle, by presenting strange arithmatic of how many times a partial charge is counted against a full chragecycle debit.

all in all, when one of the single biggest user issues is the need to keep a watchful eye on the number of chargecycles you have consumed - morphie obscures this ivery important information (hopefully the new dock-aware facilties of mobile osx v3 will allow mophie to create a more useful/clear log system!).

(4) the reviwer failed to empahsize what status info the juicepak does actually provide is not very reliable.

the LED's on the juicepak will immediately change their satus (on a scale of 1-4 lights) depending on whether the juicepak is un/plugged in to a USB source of power, or whether the iphone is plugged into the juikepak cradle, or a combination of both!

it is VERY disconcerting to be able to plan ahead onefuture consumption when the true staus of the device(s) is completely opaque!! - one never really knows for sure how much charge is going to be available (except, obviously when both internal & external battery indicate ful).

conclusion: the juicepak is ceratianly a more convenient form-factor than all the other external iphone3G batteries because it also doubles as a case. However the lack of good telemetry can sometimes leave you hanging (which is exactly the opposite purpose of having a battery in the first place!).

while i can have a limited sympathy for the design choice to have seprate products for iphone/itouch (because their shapes are obviously differnt - and their dock are electrically different?), it is unfortunate that mophie couldnt have also added support for ipod charging (even if support was just limited just an adpapter cable, without fitting into the cradle itself) so that the juicepak could do double duty in a pinch!

moreover, it seems strange that mophie also choose to ignore the benefits afforded by having a firewire pigtail cable! .... cuz fw delivers more than FOURtimes the power -2X the voltage and 2X current- of USB, even the 1000mA enhanced mobo-grade version of usb. Surely this could offer some serious improvements in the juicepak's charging time ... and when you need more juice wuick you REALLLY do need more juice quick!

overall, the juicepak is a definite success! ... it is SHOCKINGLY lightweight, and the case is not as bulky as you would think!

(though when the cradle does comes off, and once again the nude smoothness of the iphone is in one's hand, one has a very noticeable & immediate sensation that one is handling an object d'art!).

postscript: the company REALLY should change its name to what naturally first trips off the tongue: MORPHIE ... as in the company that helps you fight sleep dur to being run-down! Mophie sounds like some boston inflection of 'murphy' - it just doesnt click.