Mophie Juice Pack Helium: Tech Review

We’ve all been there. Your iPhone is minutes from dying and you don’t have your charger, if you do – there’s no outlet in sight, or you just don’t have enough time to charge your phone before your next meeting. Now what? You don’t get to send out that urgent work email, or you can’t call your boss to say your running late, or even worse – you don’t get to Instagram your dinner from that new Thai place in town that everyone’s been talking about. That’s what!!

Here’s the solution to the biggest #FirstWorldProblem known to man – the Mophie Juice Pack Helium, built specifically for iPhone 5.

So what exactly is it? The Mophie Juice Pack Helium is your battery’s saving grace. Literally. The Mophie is a stylish, protective phone case that also has a built in battery. The case is so thin, that you won’t believe it actually has a battery inside it.

Key Features:

• Ultra Thin Case
• USB Charging
• Enhanced Forward-Ported Acoustics
• LED Power Indicator
• Stand By Switch
• Available in 2 colors (dark metallic & silver metallic)

Specs:

• Battery Capacity: 1500 mAh
• Weight: 2.44 oz.
• Size (W x H x D): 2.49 x 5.49 x 0.59 in
• Product Capability: iPhone 5

We had the chance to take the new Mophie Juice Pack Helium for a test drive and here’s what we found.

Design: 

If you didn’t know any better, you would look at the Mophie Juice Pack Helium and think it was just your average iPhone 5 case. The Helium packs a lot of power without the extra bulk you would expect. The case is rather thin overall, but is a little longer than most iPhone cases on the market. The case comes in two pieces that slide easily and snugly onto your phone. The included micro-USB cable makes it so you can charge both the juice pack and your iPhone at the same time.

Using the LED indicator (located at the back) you can quickly and easily check battery levels before heading out. Once your iPhone battery begins to take a nosedive you can bring it back to life by flipping off the standby switch which will automatically start charging the phone. Mophie has made the Helium’s design simplistic and pretty much idiot proof which is a good thing. As an added bonus, the enhanced forward-ported acoustics redirects the iPhone’s audio towards you and actually sounds great. Right now it only comes in two colors – dark metallic & silver metallic – but they are the most stylish of the metallic family.

One design flaw we felt was worth mentioning is the smooth outer surface of the Helium. It has a slippery feel that initially makes you worried that you’re going to drop it all the time. We didn’t have any issues dropping or fumbling with our phone during our weeks of testing, but it does feel slippery.

Battery Life: 

The Mophie Juice Pack Helium boasts the following battery life stats:

Talk Time:
Up to additional 6 hours on 3G

Internet Use:
Up to additional 6 hours on 3G
Up to additional 6 hours on LTE
Up to additional 7 hours on WiFi

Audio Playback:
Up to 30 hours

Video Playback:
Up to 7 hours

Think about it. If your work day revolves around using your phone for any of the above, your basically getting an additional work day’s worth of battery life. We put the Mophie Juice Pack Helium’s battery to the test and were able to keep our iPhone 5 alive for 36 hours straight. THIRTY-SIX HOURS! We charged up our iPhone and the Mophie simultaneously using the super handy micro-USB cable until they were both fully charged and then let ‘er rip. We didn’t pussy foot around the battery life to see how long we could get it to last. We carried on like any typical day full of email, Spotify, Facebook, web searching, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and everything in between. Yes we did get some sleep during the testing period but we wanted to see how the Mophie Juice Pack Helium rolled in a real life simulation. It passed with flying colors.

Durability: 

The Mophie Juice Pack Helium offers edge to edge protection that is ideal for every day use. The back side of the Helium has a decent amount of padding built in to help absorb some of the shock if you accidentally come down with a case of the butterfingers. Drop it out of your pocket or accidentally knock it off of your desk and it’s probably going to be okay.

Value: 

The Mophie Juice Pack Helium clocks in at $79.95 but if you are constantly worrying about your phone dying, this is a pretty cheap life insurance policy. It’ll take your phone the distance during that next work conference, flight delay, or backpacking trip.

Buy Now: $79.99 or go to: mophie.com