I used to spend a lot of time traveling and out in the field so needed portable power to keep my mobile devices up and running. Mophie Juice Packs were critical to providing this power and I often found myself picking these battery cases up in airports around the country.
The new Mophie Juice Pack Connect accessory takes advantage of today’s common Qi wireless charging standard and offers a universal system that extends charging to those with multiple phones, a family of phones, or those who upgrade on an annual basis and don’t want to purchase specific device battery cases on a regular basis. The Mophie Juice Pack Connect sells for $79.95 and works on iPhone and Android smartphones with Qi charging capability.
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The retail package contains the Juice Pack Connect battery pack, two Connect Adapters, a Connect Stand, a USB-C cable, and an alignment kit. The battery pack has a capacity of 5,000 mAh, which exceeds or matches the capacity of most smartphones today.
While you can certainly attach a Connect Adapter directly onto a phone, I like to use cases so just selected a couple of cases to use as my Juice Pack Connect cases. I primarily used a Speck Presidio case with a Galaxy S20 Ultra and an OnePlus case with an OnePlus 8 Pro device. Mophie provides an alignment tool so you can easily center the Connect Adapter onto the center of your case or phone by matching the top and bottom numbers, along with the right and left side numbers. After alignment, peel off the back of the adapter and stick it in place.
With the Connect Adapter attached you then simply slide either the Juice Pack Connect battery or Connect Stand attachment over the Adapter. With the battery pack, you then tap the battery status button to initiate wireless charging of your phone. You can also connect a USB-C cable to the battery pack and charge up your gear with a cable rather than wirelessly through the adapter.
While you can charge the battery pack up with the USB-C cable, Mophie also supports charging up both the battery pack and your phone at the same time on a wireless charger. The battery pack charges up fine simply by placing it on a wireless charger and since I have wireless chargers all over my house, in my offices, and by my bed that is my preferred method of charging batteries and devices.
There may be some thick cases that do not support wireless charging, but the Speck and OnePlus ones I tested worked just fine. Even with the adapter in place I was able to set my phones on wireless chargers to power them up. Wireless payment systems also worked fine with the Connect Adapter mounted to the cases.
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The Connect Adapter holds the battery pack on well and with just a bit of pressure, you can slide it back off. There is a small tab that protrudes out and past the adapter to hold it in place. It isn’t locked to withstand serious pressure but stays in place just fine for charging use.
While the battery pack is a great universal solution that you can continue to use for years by removing and attaching adapters to various phones and cases, I was very pleased to see the dual-use scenario for the Connect Adapter. The Connect Stand slides onto the adapter just like the battery and then provides a kickstand for use of your phone in portrait or landscape orientation. I use my phones all of the time to view media content so having a kickstand on virtually any phone or case is a great benefit of this system.
You can rotate the Connect Stand too so that the stand extends and holds your device securely in the position you find most stable and useful for your viewing needs. I usually have my phones in landscape orientation for video content, but it is nice to use portrait mode for video calling and the stand does a great job of propping up your phone securely.
