Key Takeaways
- Mophie Juice Pack offers a well-designed case that extends phone battery life by roughly 50%.
- The case is sturdy, slim, and maintains iPhone features, with LED indicators for battery life.
- Consider a power bank instead of the Juice Pack due to annual phone design changes and lower cost for more charging power.
Mophie’s return to the phone charging case business with the Juice Pack for the iPhone 15 line is nostalgic for someone like me who remembers using these battery boosters over a decade ago. However, after taking off the rose-tinted glasses, it’s unclear if this product still has a place in the current landscape of gadgets because of the advancements of MagSafe batteries.
Mophie Juice Pack for iPhone 15
A charging case for the iPhone 15 line of phones that offers roughly 50% more battery uptime.
- Sleek and protective case design
- Pass-through charging
- Becomes outdated with next phone generation
- Doesn?t come with power adapter or USB-C cord
- Adds more bulk/weight than a standard case
Price and Availability
The Mophie Juice Pack for iPhone retails for $99.95—no matter the phone size. The only item inside the box is the Juice Pack charging case; you’ll need to provide your own power adapter and USB-C cable. I reviewed the iPhone 15 Pro Max model.
A Well-Designed Case That Does Its Job
Given how long Mophie was in the charging case-making business, it’s no surprise that the Juice Pack is such a refined product. It looks sleek, feels good in the hand, and extends your phone’s battery length by roughly 50%.
The recyclable plastic used to create this case is soothing to the touch yet provides enough friction to make it easy to grip. It’s worth noting that the matte black is a fingerprint magnet, but it’s nothing you’ll notice when actively using the case. Still, hopefully, Mophie will offer more colors to combat this if they continue the Juice Pack line.
This case is sturdy, providing a hard shell that hugs the phone tightly. The removable top portion of the case that enables you to slide your phone in shows no signs of looseness when the phone is docked and raised edges around the screen provide extra protection. Your finger will bump up against these ridges performing swiping inputs from the edge of the screen, though I quickly got used to it.
The added size and weight made my phone unsuitable to carry in my pocket, but there’s no excess fat here. It manages to be slim within the confines of housing a battery. Know that you’ll likely need to put your phone in your bag when traveling with this case, rather than a pants pocket.
All the physical features of the iPhone are kept intact in this case. Stand-ins for the iPhone’s side buttons were consistently responsive and felt satisfying to press, while openings for the speaker resulted in no sound muffling. Fastening the case’s removable top over the camera does result in light contact with the lenses, though the natural padding of the material used shouldn’t cause damage.
On the back of the case are four LEDs that indicate the battery’s current charge. These light up when charging the case and can be checked by pressing an adjacent button. Holding this button toggles the battery on and off, meaning you can use this case as only a protective guard and save the titular juice for when it’s necessary.
Let’s talk about that power. Mophie claims that the 3,000mAh battery (2,400mAh in other iPhone 15 variants) provides up to 50% extra battery life for your phone. This roughly bore out in my testing, though it took the phone a few hours to regain this charge. It’s slower than other charging methods, but given the always-attached form factor, it’s not as big a problem as it sounds. In other words, it’ll do the job of keeping your phone topped up.
Also noteworthy is the case’s use of pass-through charging. This means that when plugged into a power source, both the case and your phone will charge simultaneously. The case prioritizes charging your phone over itself.
So, we’ve established that the Mophie Juice Pack is a charging case that hits all its benchmarks and claims. But before you go to purchase it, we need to discuss a handful of underlying issues surrounding the form factor that makes it hard to recommend.
The Conundrum of Phone Charging Cases
Every yearly refresh of the iPhone comes with design changes that in turn demand customers who use cases to purchase new ones. This isn’t a huge deal for a cheaper, standard-issue case, but the steep $100 price of Mophie’s Juice Pack is a tough sell given its potentially limited shelf life. If you want this product and plan on upgrading your phone annually, you’ll also need to shell out for a new charging case (assuming Mophie continues the product line). And if we’re being frank, Mophie launching this product midway through the iPhone 15’s life cycle already cuts its value in half. The iPhone 16 is just a few months out.
If you’re someone who plans on keeping your phone for an extended period, perhaps this is less of an issue. However, shape-shifting phone form factors aren’t the only inherent flaw of charging cases. They also struggle to compete against the value of their competition in the portable charging space. Let’s look at a few of these.
Why You Should Consider These Charging Alternatives
A power bank such as Mophie’s Powerstation ($49.95) is a battery pack that allows you to charge multiple devices at once and should work for every kind of phone. Coming in at half the cost of the Juice Pack, the Powerstation has a 10,000 mAh battery, which on paper provides roughly 333% more charging capability than the charging case’s 3,000mAh iPhone 15 Pro Max variant. Other iPhone 15 models fare even better in comparison. It’s also capable of charging three devices at once, and while only one of the ports in this model is USB-C, there are other offerings for multiple USB-C ports, and at an even lower cost than Mophie’s power bank to boot.
Another alternative option is the one that caused the market for charging cases to disappear: MagSafe battery packs. These magnetically attach to the back of your iPhone and act as wireless chargers, with Mophie’s offering—the Snap+ Juice Pack Mini ($49.95)—boasting a 5,000 mAh battery. Qi2 wireless charging technology is making its way to these magnetic chargers too. Belkin’s latest 5K power bank is solid.
Should You Buy a Mophie Juice Pack?
If your needs specifically require a phone charging case, the Mophie Juice Case is a strong offering that demands a high price (even higher if you don’t already own a USB-C cable and power adapter, as you’ll need to purchase those separately). However, it’s hard to recommend this and similar products over power banks given their inherent annual obsolescence, higher price point, and less charging power.
How-To Geek has numerous reviews of power banks if you’re looking for recommendations in that category. We also have a roundup of the best MagSafe battery packs.
Mophie Juice Pack for iPhone 15
A charging case for the iPhone 15 line of phones that offers roughly 50% more battery uptime.
