Mophie Juice Pack Battery Case For Samsung Galaxy S III Review

Mophie Juice Pack Final Thoughts

The white version of the mophie juice pack came pretty close to matching the color of our white Galaxy S III. The hard plastic case doesn’t add much weight, but it does increase the size of the phone by a fairly dramatic amount. It is clear that the you’ll need to sacrifice the sleekness of the phone to use this battery pack!

While using the mophie juice pack I noticed that it is not beard or goatee friendly. Not the best thing when it is No Shave November! When using the juice pack facial hair does like to get stuck between the juice pack and the phone, which can be painful! Just a heads up to all those that have mastered the art of not shaving.

The buttons on the sides of the smartphone still functioned fine, but the buttons rattle if you shake the phone. When you have a $550 (no-contract price) phone and a $100 case that leaves a bit of a bad taste in your mouth.

When doing this review I ran across what looked like some counterfeit batteries and devices on sites like ebay and Amazon. Some of the feedback left for mophie juice pack on Amazon was negative and one also mentioned how the buttons rattled, so I asked mophie for a comment on this.

“mophie prides itself on offering the highest quality products through its retailer partners. We cannot guarantee that devices from noncertified retailers such as the Amazon Marketplace are not counterfeit and therefore; we highly recommend that current and potential consumers only purchase mophie products from its authorized U.S. partners. A list of partners can be found here.”

They mentioned that some of the devices being sold out there could be counterfeits and that you should buy a juice pack from an authorized retailer to be sure it is real. Counterfeit items are becoming pretty bad online these days, so if you see a deal that is too good to be true then it more than likely is!

The mophie juice pack leaves the camera and speaker open, so all the Galaxy S III smartphones features remain intact. It also doesn’t effect your signal strength or the phone’s NFC or S Beam capabilities. You can also sync your phone with the juice pack installed, which is a nice touch as you can just leave the juice pack on and not worry about any of the functions being hampered.

Final Thoughts and Conclusions:

After using the mophie juice pack for a bit I am left with mixed thoughts on the mophie rechargeable external battery case. The juice pack works as advertised – it more or less doubles the battery life of the Galaxy S III smartphone. I never ran out of power during the day when I had the juice pack installed and heavily used the cell phone. Knowing that you can talk for nearly 18 hours straight on the phone without charging it is certainly comforting! You don’t have to always use the case though as if your phone is nearly dead, you can slip it in the mophie juice pack and in a couple hours your phone is back to a full charge. This ability to have a charge longer is what power users need and the juice pack delivers when you need it most. The only real downsides to the juice pack are the added size of device itself and the price. At $99.95 shipped the mophie juice pack isn’t exactly cost effective and there are other ways to extend your battery life.

For example, the biggest rival that I see for this product is the Samsung Battery Charging System for the Galaxy S III. For $36.88 shipped you get an extra 2100mA battery and a charging stand from Samsung. This means that you get another Samsung OEM battery for your phone with a charging stand for 63% less than the mophie juice pack. Not only do you save nearly $63.07 that way, but you also can use whatever case you like and not have to deal with a bulky Galaxy S III smartphone case. The downside is that you need to carry an extra battery with you and switch them out at some point during the day.

Which choice is right for you? That is entirely your call, but at least now you know there are a couple good options out there for keeping your Galaxy S III charged up and running all day. There is nothing more aggravating that having a dead smartphone because the battery ran out of power!

Legit Bottom Line: The mophie juice pack for the Samsung Galazy S III worked great, but it is expensive and you can buy a factory replacement battery for far less and get the same overall up time!

(11/28/12 Update at 2pm CT: Mophie is doing a holiday sale and is offering 15% off with promo code ‘snowman’ if you buy it direct. This brings the price down to $89.76 shipped USPS First Class. The promotion starts December 8th, 2012.)