mophie unleashed its brand new juice pack battery case for iPhone 15 back in late April, and we are now ready to weigh in after testing it out for a month or so. The brand has been producing these battery cases for some time and its latest has now arrived for all but the Plus variant of Apple’s current-generation handsets. The questions are two-fold for me: is it worth the lofty price of entry? And is it releasing too late into the iPhone 15 life cycle? Head below for my hands-on impressions in the latest entry to the Tested with gadgetnewsonline series.
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Hands-on with the new iPhone 15 mophie juice pack battery case
The new mophie juice pack is available for iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Max in black only. It carries a regular price tag at $100, but you can score one on sale right now at $79.99 shipped.
Take a closer look at the specs:
- Up to +50% Battery Life
- Up to 44 HRS Talk Time ǀ up to 44 HRS Music Play Back ǀ up to 11 HRS Video Play Back
- Contains a 2,400mAh Internal Battery
- LED Power Indicator
- Standby/Status Button
- Priority Charging
- High Impact Protection
- Raised Edges
- Sustainable Materials
- Integrated USB-C Port
gadgetnewsonline’ Take
mophie is certainly no stranger to the battery-equipped iPhone accessory business, it has been in it for years. From power banks and, more recently, those with MagSafe capabilities, it is a mobile power brand that has been generally well received by many and one that has been featured around here for years.
One of its latest releases in the space is the new juice pack you see featured here today – an all-in-one iPhone 15 case that comes loaded with a 2,400mAh battery inside to significantly increase your video-watching, messaging, browsing, phone-calling, and social feed binging time (battery-life) without having to lug around a separate piece of kit.
Okay, let’s talk build. The new mophie juice pack presents smooth, clean lines in a stealthy black color treatment throughout here. No gross logos or branding, no sharp edges, and a soft, matte finish throughout – the latter of which is a real highlight for me. It feels soft and smooth to the touch, with the slightest hint of texture, and a shine-free look.
Along the sides of the case you’ll find what, at least, appear to be metal button covers for the power/home button, volume buttons, and the Action Button – I am testing out the iPhone 15 Pro version here by the way. If you know my case reviews, then you know I love these sorts of button covers. They have a distinct clicky feel, look great, and deliver a sort of subtle accent to the aesthetics of the case with a black-on-black shiny apperance. They work great and I have no complaints here.
Along the bottom of the case you’ll find a four LED array to indicate battery life (remaining and charging progress) that activate by way of the cases power button that sits just to left of them – this button is even more stealthy, sitting completely flush along the back, and is made of a material similar to the main body of the case.
There are three things that always come to mind for most folks when it comes to battery cases, and the first is thickness. It has a battery shoved inside, it’s going to have to be thicker than your average case for sure, but I’m impressed with this one. I’m not sure if it’s the way the case shape was designed, with a sort of contoured approach that takes the case back from the recessed area around the camera array to slightly protruding battery portion of the form-factor, but it’s thinner than I ever remember these things being and does a great job of feeling relatively slender and sleek in the hand.
I does add an extra centimeter or two along the bottom to support the internal USB-C connection to your phone – I prefer a little bit of extra length over thickness – and, when it’s resting flat on its back on the table top, it sits at about the thickness of a few credit cards higher than the leather case I’m using right now. Not bad at all.
The second is performance. mophie says the internal battery can add about 50% extra life to your device. This is clearly going to vary from person-to-person, so my personal experience isn’t going to be much help. mophie says you’ll get 44 hours of talk time and music playback and about 11 hours of straight video binging. I would never need that much time for any of these things before I find my way to an outlet or my home base MagSafe charger, but I think it’s safe to say you’re not going to be running out of battery in a day, probably not even two, and it might very well save you in a pinch if you’re not watching the new Fallout series over and over again on a plane trip to Australia and back again without charging.
The passthrough action is solid – when connecting to a USB-C cable the battery case will prioritize charging your phone before it starts to juice up its internal battery. And this leads me to the third thing, MagSafe. And by MagSafe, I mean there is none of course because there’s a giant battery in the way.
Perhaps mophie could have added a magnet array on top of the battery, perhaps that would make it too thick, or perhaps it would just damage the battery inside, I’m not sure, I’m not an engineer. But I do know I can’t use my MagSafe accessories or chargers when I arrive home. This is not going to work for some, but the sorts of folks that were going to buy one of these were probably already prepared to remove it when they arrive home for an extended period, don’t use MagSafe gear, or are purchasing one for particular use case scenarios. Either way, you have been warned if this hadn’t crossed your mind.
I like the way this case looks and feels, and I really like that mophie has managed to do all of this with a case constructed of 50% post consumer recycled materials. It’s not 100%, but it’s something.
Some might suggest it’s a bit late for mophie to be releasing a new iPhone 15 case this far into the iPhone’s yearly cycle, and understandably so. For folks that refresh their Apple device every year (or are planning to do so come September), the life cycle of the iPhone 15 form-factor is about half over now. But for others, the iPhone 15 will remain, has just become, or will soon be their daily driver for much longer than that. And mophie is delivering one of the better, arguably premium-grade battery cases out there for it in my opinion. You just need to be ready to pay for it because $100 for a case isn’t cheap, and you better be putting this thing to good use to drop that kind of cash if you ask me.
Buy the mophie juice pack battery case for iPhone 15
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