The Mophie Juice Pack for iPhone 15 is the latest iteration of a product the company has been offering for around a decade now.
The battery case claims to extend the battery life of an iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, or iPhone 15 Pro Max by 50% – but in my testing, did better than that …
If your iPhone 15 isn’t getting you through a full day, there’s a whole bunch of solutions out there – from top-up charges from a portable battery bank through MagSafe battery packs.
The Mophie Juice Pack takes a different approach. It’s a snap-on case which completely encloses your iPhone, with an integrated battery.
I tested it with the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
The Mophie Juice Pack for iPhone 15: Look & feel
The case is a rather anonymous-looking matte plastic case with a rubberized feel. There’s no visible branding.
Powered off, the only clues that there’s a battery in there is the humped shape and a barely-visible power button and LED array.
In use
The case pulls open, you insert your phone into the main section – the USB-C port automatically aligning with the plug in the inside bottom of the case – and then slide the top section back into place. Hold down the power button to switch it on, and a set of four white LEDs indicate the remaining charge.
The case also supports pass-through charging, so you can simply leave the phone in the case when connecting to a USB-C cable. The phone is charged first, then the case. In use, it’s the opposite, the case battery powering the phone until it is exhausted.
My most extensive use of previous generations of this case has been on cycle-touring holidays. Since I used my iPhone for photos and video clips, I appreciated the extended battery life, as well as the impact-protection offered by the case.
This latest version offers the same benefits. The case offers a high degree of impact protection to the rear and surrounds, and the front lip also protects the screen. Again, in a previous version, I inadvertently tested this by dropping my phone from a moving bike, and it was entirely unscathed.
The battery is a 2400mAh one, which the company says extends the battery by around 50%. I was again completely unable to exhaust the battery.
On one long day with extensive phone use, I still had some case power left at the end of the day, and the iPhone itself still had 100% battery. When I left the screen on for a full 12 hours, the Juice Pack was still going (albeit down to the last LED), and my phone was again still fully charged.
Pros & cons
As with previous models, the Mophie Juice Pack offers a mix of pros & cons.
Pros
The main benefit is that it dramatically extends the battery-life of your iPhone, in a single unit. There’s no MagSafe pack to fall off or stick out, and no cables as with an external power pack. The case still fits into a jacket pocket.
The other advantage is the impact protection. For any outdoor activity where there’s an increased risk of dropping your phone, this is a really comforting additional benefit.
Cons
The main drawback is the lack of MagSafe support. So you can’t charge the case or phone on wireless chargers, and you can’t use a MagSafe wallet. As someone whose MagSafe wallet is my only wallet, this is for sure a nuisance.
Additionally, while you may have chosen your primary iPhone case because you like the aesthetics, nobody would call the Juice Pack pretty. Inoffensive, sure, but pretty, no.
Pricing & conclusions
The Mophie Juice Pack costs $100, though you may be able to find it on sale for less.
For me, it belongs firmly in the category of ‘if you need one, you’ll know it.’ For my main use case, of cycle touring, I consider it pretty much perfect – and worth the outlay. But if you simply need a bit more of a boost to get through a longer day, you may be better off with a midday top-up charge from an external battery pack.
Check out the in-depth review over at 9to5Toys, complete with a link to a sale price.
Photo: Mophie.
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