During a recent podcast with the folks over at Justanotheriphoneblog I predicted the 3G iPhone would almost certainly have a detachable battery. If the corporate world is to adopt the iPhone I reasoned that they’d want to have plenty of spare power on hand when out in the field. Turns out I was wrong about the removable battery. Luckily there are third parties to provide the features and functionality that Apple chose to exclude from the iPhone 3G. One such extended battery for the iPhone is the Mophie Juice Pack. Now I know what you’re thinking - big, bulky, yuk. Surprisingly I found that the bulk of the Mophie was a help rather than a hindrance. Keep reading for more pictures and my review.

In my hands the Mophie doesn’t feel as if it weighs any more (or less) than the Agent 18 case that I formerly had on my iPhone. The Mophie isn’t exactly a protective case because the entire top of your iPhone is exposed to potential damage.

Your iPhone slides into the Mophie and is held in place by little more than the pressure of the case. A quick “shake test” verified that the iPhone was held firmly within the case. The bottom of the case has a charging adapter where you can plug your iPhone power cable to recharge the battery.

One very weird thing (two actually) is that you cannot sync through the charger port. So in order to connect to iTunes you must remove your iPhone from the Mophie. Secondly , you must turn your charging cable upside down to plug it into the Mophie. Of course the bulk of the case itself means that you’ll also have to remove your iPhone if you want to plug into any accessories like the iHome iP99 that I use as a click radio.

What I immediately noticed (and loved) about the Mophie can be summed up in four letters — G-R-I-P. The Mophie Juice Pack has a nice rubber coating that makes holding your iPhone less of a challenge. Prior to using the Mophie I would find my iPhone easily slipping from my hands. The entire Mophie case is a grippy rubber. Nice!

The battery pack itself is 1800 mah (the iPhone’s is 1400 mah) and requires an initial charge of 8 hours. Once charged, the company claims that it will approximately double the life of your iPhone. I think the estimate is a little generous. In practice I found that I could attach the Mophie at 6am and by around 3 to 4pm the battery indicator (see below) would indicate that the Mophie was fully discharged. My usage was what I’d term light email retrieval (every 10 minutes) and virtually no video or music playing.

What’s nice about the Mophie Juice Pack is it first drains the power from itself. When you run out of power on the Mophie, you can remove the pack and have full power remaining on your iPhone.

You’ll know when power is low because there are a series of 4 blue lights on the back which indicate the relative power strength. To check power remaining push on the back button and it lights up the strength indicator displaying the relative power remaining. I found one quirk (and the manual points this out as well) - if the Mophie is fully discharged it has a habit of continuously beeping if you remove it and try to put it back on the iPhone before it has been re-charged. I found this rather annoying and the only way I could make it go away was to recharge the Mophie prior to placing it back onto my iPhone.

Summary:
I like it. I like it a lot.

I would like to see the battery life be about 4 to 6 hours longer. Think of this more as a combination case and battery charger than a simple extended battery. Other than wishing the batter was a bit stronger I cannot find anything wrong with it. I do NOT think it is too heavy or bulky. I rather liked the the case made my iPhone a little bigger and easier to carry and grip. I have only been testing for about a week but already I don’t like to leave the house in the morning without it.

Cost: $99
Link: Mophie Juice Pack

What I Liked:
- grip
- fast to recharge (only about 4 hours after the initial 8 hour first charge)
- relatively inexpensive for a case / battery combo

What Could Be Improved:
- enable syncing via charging port
- add a couple hours to the battery life