mophie’s juice pack air ($99.95) has been a longtime best-seller for people looking for a way to keep their iPhone charged while not adding a lot of weight. The latest version of the juice pack air has been redesigned to allow wireless charging of the battery pack and iPhone, but still allows Lightning pass-through when necessary. Today I’m taking a look at the mophie juice pack air for iPhone Xs Max.
Design
The juice pack air comes in a very familiar looking body — it’s similar to older versions of the juice pack air, with a removable top that allows for easy slide-in of the iPhone, speaker holes in the bottom front of the case, passthrough buttons, and of course a hole for the camera. There’s also a Lightning port on the bottom of the unit, so if you don’t have a wireless charger available, you can still use the old reliable USB to Lightning cable to keep things charged up.
While the weight may vary by iPhone size, the iPhone Xs Max version weighs just 3.1 ounces (89.9 grams). It does add some bulk to the iPhone, but also keeps it well protected. One thing I love about this case is that the “bump” on the back and the recess around the camera lenses keeps the camera from getting scratched. There’s also just enough of a ridge on the sides, top and bottom to provide protection for your iPhone display in face-down drops.
On the back of the juice pack air is a single round button and four white LEDs. Press the button briefly, and the LEDs light up to tell you how much relative charge the juice pack is carrying (four LEDs indicates a full charge, two a half-charge, etc…). To begin recharging the iPhone with the juice pack air, the user simply presses the button for three seconds. Likewise, pressing that button for three seconds again will turn off the recharging.
The Qi charging works well; I placed the case and iPhone onto several wireless chargers I own and it began charging the phone after just a second. mophie uses what’s called “priority + charging”, meaning that when the case and iPhone are placed on a charger or plugged in, the iPhone receives first priority in being charged. Only when it is fully charged does the battery pack begin to charge up.
The capacity of the iPhone Xs Max version of the juice pack air is 1,840 mAh. While that’s not enough to fully recharge the Max (it has a 3,174 mAh battery), it does add 57% more battery life to your device. If you’re in a situation where your iPhone Xs Max isn’t making it through the day on a single charge, the juice pack air can save the day.
It’s available in black, silver, red and rose gold.
Function
I found the juice pack air to be easy to use, unlike the issues that I ran into with the juice pack access. I simply plugged it in with a Lightning cable and charged it fully prior to first use, then installed the case onto my phone. After the initial charge, I just started placing it onto one of my Qi chargers every night to charge the iPhone battery and the juice pack’s battery.
On those few occasions where I do run out of gas on my iPhone, it’s sure nice to be able to just push the button on the back of the juice pack air for three seconds and start charging the iPhone. It comes in handy when there is no charger nearby!
Conclusion
With the juice pack air for iPhone Xs Max, mophie has brought simplicity back to charging again — in fact, I’m now changing my former rating on the juice pack access to 2 stars, simply because it didn’t work properly. This case is priced identically to the access, and has none of the issues of that device.
