iPhone Battery Life Still Weak, Mophie Juice Pack Helps

A new report compiled by Strategy Analytics says that while most iPhone owners are pleased with their devices, they aren't so happy about battery performance. Though the iPhone doesn't have a user-replaceable battery, there are options out there. Enter the Mophie Juice Pack Air.I am not surprised by the results of Strategy Analytics' research. As someone who's used the iPhone for over two years, battery life has never been among the device's strengths. The iPhone 3GS, in my opinion, fares better than its predecessor, the iPhone 3G. Still, it's not uncommon to reach the critical 20% or 10% battery life warnings at or before the end of the day.

"iPhone owners use more features on a regular basis than non-iPhone owners, with two-thirds browsing the web and sending personal emails daily-features which will considerably drain battery life," according to Paul Brown, Senior User Experience Analyst at Strategy Analytics.

There are plenty of ways to maximize battery performance. A few suggestions would include:

• Turn off Wi-Fi radio
• Turn off Bluetooth radio
• Keep display brightness below 50%
• Reduce how often the device checks for email

Those are just a few ideas. If you're already doing those things and still find the iPhone coming up short at the end of the day, be sure to try the Mophie Juice Pack Air.

The Juice Pack Air was designed to fit the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. Think of it as a slightly thicker, longer case to protect the iPhone. The Juice Pack Air slides onto an iPhone, increasing the size, but also lengthening battery life.

The Juice Pack Air charges via a microUSB port and can be turned on or off. When the iPhone is docked in the Juice Pack Air, it draws power from the Juice Pack first. Once the Juice Pack is fully drained, the iPhone will begin drawing from its own internal battery.

Mophie claims that the Juice Pack Air doubles the battery life of the iPhone, providing up to 270 hours of stand-by time, 4.5 hours of 3G talk time, 4.5 hours of 3G Internet, 27 hour of audio playback and 9 hours of video playback. These numbers are sort of hard to quantify, especially since iPhone users are using a mix of all these features throughout the day.

Here's the bottom line. Over the course of testing the Mophie Juice Pack, I found that it consistently delivered 12 extra hours of use. In other words, when I started the day at 7AM with a fully charged Juice Pack and fully charged iPhone, the Juice Pack would run dry around 7PM, leaving me the entire evening to deplete the still-fully-charged iPhone.

Other features include the ability to charge the Juice Pack Air separately or with the iPhone inside it, a set of LED lights to indicate how much charge is left, and an on/off switch that lets users control when the Juice Pack is on.

The Mophie Juice Pack Air costs $80. It isn't cheap, but it's not all that much more expensive than any stand-alone spare battery would be for a BlackBerry or other smartphone (~$50-$60).

The Juice Pack Air adds bulk and weight to the iPhone, but it's a fair trade off in my book to gain that extra usage time.