Review: Juice Pack 3G

We’ve seen plenty of external power packs for smartphones before, but all have been designed to provide emergency power as and when needed. Not so the Juice Pack. This battery for the iPhone comes in the form of a sleeve and is intended to be used on a permanent basis.

Fortunately the Juice Pack is a relatively slimline product so adds little in the way of bulk to the iPhone, and the soft rubber finush is very much in keeping with the kind of style that iPhone users are accustomed to.

It does feel deceptively like a case, though, and while it might add some toughness against the occasional drop the manual for the battery itself warns against excessive shock.

The sleeve fits the iPhone perfectly, but that is because each iPhone and iPod Touch model has its own Juice Pack – there’s no option to share a single one across a family of products.

The  phone can still be charged and synced while inside the Juice Pack, both via a miniUSB connector (the iPod connector is inside the sleeve), although you won’t need to charge too often as the battery is true to its word in more than doubling the amount of use you can get from your phone between charges.

Furthermore it does not affect the quality of calls.

At £68 the Juice Pack is more than twice the price of a more generic external charger, but if you are a power user who finds the mediocre battery life of the iPhone 3G to be a real weakness, the convenience of having your external power supply integrated into your phone means it will pay for itself in no time at all.

Price (as reviewed): £67.99
Web: www.juicepack.co.uk

Verdict: 8

Popularity: 5% [?]