- So, you're in the market for a new battery case
to fit your iPhone XS, XS Max, or your iPhone XR,
and you've come across the Juice Pack Access from Mophie,
but you're really not sure of whether or not
you should purchase it.
Well, you've landed in the right place.
Because, in today's video, I'm gonna go ahead
and review the Juice Pack Access from Mophie
and tell you whether or not
it's worth considering purchasing,
or if you should purchase something else.
Now, I am Mike and this is Tech 24/7 TV.
If this is your first time here,
hey, thanks for checking us out,
and maybe consider subscribing
if you find value in this type of content.
If this is not your first time here, and you're a regular,
well, hey, thanks for coming back.
Now, let's get started.
(relaxing music)
So, for context, I'm the type of person
who does not like to see my iPhone battery
get down to the orange or, heaven forbid, even to the red.
Anxiety starts kicking in, it's like oh my gosh,
my phone's gonna die very soon.
I'm very familiar with iPhone battery cases.
I've had an iPhone battery case since the iPhone 4S.
If I'm not mistaken, that was from Mophie as well.
And I most recently reviewed
the Photo Smart Battery Case from Moment,
that fits the iPhone X,
in addition to the iPhone Smart Battery Case,
which is from Apple.
And I will leave links to both those videos,
in case you're interested in either one of those products,
here, above.
Like the name implies, the Mophie Juice Pack Access
allows users to still access the Lightning port
in the bottom of the phone,
to retain access to features like CarPlay,
charge and sync, and still using Lightning headphones.
Now, since there is no physical connection
in between the phone and the charging case,
that means that there is an additional port
on the bottom of the charging case, which is USB-C.
The buttons themselves have a great tactility
and feel to them, when you're pushing them in.
And the corners feature raised edges
for added drop protection.
So, the case is designed of hard plastic
and features a capsule design that allows you to go ahead
and pull the top off the case,
slide in your phone, and then reseal to get going.
And the Juice Pack Access has a retail price of 99 dollars.
And Mophie makes a version that's compatible
with the iPhone XS, the iPhone XS Max, and the iPhone XR.
And coming in a number of different colors.
For the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max,
they come in the same color set.
It's gonna be black, navy blue, gold, and deep red.
And now, for the iPhone XR, you're gonna be able to get
baby blue, black, and it's gonna be red.
Now this is a different color red than the deep red.
It's a little bit lighter and it's not the same color red.
Or, at least, as what product red
they had in previous years.
Now, in addition to all that, for the 99 dollars
you are gonna get a two year warranty on the battery case.
Which I haven't seen too many battery cases,
if, at all, any, that have a two year warranty.
You can charge the Mophie Juice Pack Access
in a couple of different ways.
So, the first way is using the conventional USB-C port
that's on the bottom of the Juice Pack Access.
Now, from there, you can actually use
the included USB-C to USB-A cable.
And, if you use that, it's gonna charge at five watts
and two amps.
Now, if you have a USB-C power delivery solution,
that will go ahead and allow the charger
and the case to negotiate
whatever the charging rate's gonna be.
And, when I spoke to Mophie, today,
they told me that it will accept up to 29 watts
of energy, via USB-C power delivery.
Now, the second way that you can go ahead
and charge the case is gonna be via wireless fast charging.
As long as you have a fast charger
that supports Apple's wireless fast charging,
it'll charge the case at seven and a half watts.
So, the caveat to that is that
anytime that you're using the case to charge the phone,
that's always gonna be at five watts.
So, you can charge the case at seven and a half watts,
but the case will only charge the phone at five watts.
That is a little bit of a disappointment
that you're not able to fast charge the phone
when you have the case on there.
But you are getting the additional battery life
from the case, I think it's okay.
It's not a deal breaker by any means.
So, to get into the details about the battery
on the Juice Pack Access, it is 2200 milliampere-hours.
And it's rated for 31 hours of incremental usage.
And that usage can be broken down
into any one of the four categories.
So, that's gonna be 31 hours of phone calls,
18 hours of video playback, or 16 hours of web browsing.
Well, from a usability perspective,
the Mophie Juice Pack Access is designed
to top off your battery until you can get to a charger,
or a wireless charger,
and not designed to fill your battery up to 100 percent.
Now, that was a little bit different for me, at least,
because even though I've only been using
the iPhone Smart Battery Case for a month.
So, one of the things that you'll need to be aware of
is that if you are in an environment that is not saturated
with wireless charging pads everywhere,
and you don't have any other USB-C charging devices,
or any other devices that take USB-C cable,
you might find yourself with a dead battery case,
and a partly dead phone that you can't charge,
because you don't have a cable for it.
I was not used to carrying a USB-C cable with me everyday,
because my kind of utility bag, utility bag, right,
it has a Lighting cable and a charging brick,
but not a USB-C cable, so that's one of the predicaments
that I found myself in, you know,
after the first couple of days of usage.
Just kind of getting acclimated to the charging cycle,
and how to charge it was.
In the beginning of the video,
I talked about whether or not the Juice Pack Access
would be worth purchasing when you compare it against
the iPhone Smart Battery Case from Apple.
Now, just looking at the raw numbers,
the iPhone Smart Battery Case is 30 dollars more expensive
then the Mophie Juice Pack Access.
And it has a much smaller battery,
at 1369 milliampere-hours,
compared to 2200 milliampere-hours on the Juice Pack Access.
So, kind of the bottom line of how much it costs
and what am I getting,
you think that Apple's overcharging you and giving you less
than Mophie is.
Now, I think that's not an unreasonable conclusion
to come to, just kind of looking at the raw numbers.
But we have to peel back the onion
and say, you know, what do those numbers really mean,
in real world usage?
From a usage perspective,
Apple says that you're gonna get 33 hours of talk time,
in comparison to Mophie, at 31.
That you're gonna get 25 hours of video playback time,
in comparison to Mophie at 18.
And that you're gonna get 21 hours of web browsing,
in comparison to 16 from Mophie.
So, there is quite of a amount of additional usage
that you're getting out of the iPhone Smart Battery Case,
compared to the Mophie Juice Pack Access.
So, the reason why you're able to get that additional usage
out of the iPhone's raw battery case
is because of the tight integration that Apple has
in between their hardware, being the iPhone,
the Smart Battery Case, and the software.
You don't get that same integration
with the Mophie Juice Pack Access.
Which kind of leads to why you're not getting that
as good a performance.
But, you know, again, it's a trade off.
If you want something a little bit more protective,
and a little bit more stylish,
I would say that the Mophie Juice Pack Access
is probably the right case for you.
Again, it has a better looking feel to it,
it's got those protective corners, I love the buttons,
and it's gonna be cheaper, right.
If you value the tight integration
and you ant to get as much usage time
out of your phone during the day,
I would say that the iPhone Smart Battery Case
is definitely the one for you.
All that said, what I don't like about the Juice Pack Access
is the way that Mophie give you the battery percentage.
Here, on the bottom of the case,
you have to press this button for a couple of seconds,
and it'll give you a visual indication
how charged the phone is.
The second thing is that the bottom of the phone
is exposed, as it should be, cause you have access
to the Lightning port.
But, if you're someone who kind of takes very fine care
of your phone, and you want to make sure that you
don't get any scratches or nicks, like my friend, Steve,
who's probably watching this right now.
Hi, Steve, we're all talking about you.
You wanna make sure that, you know, you're mindful of that.
In addition to, it's only designed to take the phone from,
to top off the phone until you can get to a charger.
So, in conclusion, I think that the Juice Pack Access
is a good buy, for the performance, and 99 dollars.
And, if you can find it on sale,
either through Mophie or through Amazon,
I would say it's a definite buy.
Because you're getting more value
for the performance that you're getting.
And I would say, additionally, cause you still have access
to the Lightning port on the bottom of the phone,
you can still use CarPlay, and charge and sync,
and your Lightning headphones, if you still use headphones.
Let me know, in the comments below,
if you still use headphones.
Because I don't know anyone that does.
But I digress.
I love the tactility of the buttons.
And I think the unsung hero here
is that there's a two year warranty.
So when you think about how the upgrade cycle is elongating,
people are keeping their phones for even longer,
having this under warranty for two years is great.
So, now that you've heard my thoughts
on the Juice Pack Access,
do you see yourself going out and buying one?
Or would you go out
and get the Apple iPhone Smart Battery Case?
Let me know in the comments below.
Hit Like, hit Subscribe, or consider sharing this video
with someone who would find value in it,
because it absolutely helps the channel.
I am Mike and this is Tech 24/7 TV.
We will talk to you in the next one.