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What criterium do you use to determine what is 'too much'?
  • More than you?
  • More than is healthy (where your consumption is already borderline)?
  • More than Apple designed the battery for?

You forgot the choice of people who seemingly cannot walk, wait in line (or at a stop light), or "just be" without staring at their phone. Once you become aware of everyone around you staring at their phones instead of just being aware of what is going on around you (or god forbid, conversing with someone next to you), you realize that people use their phones "too much".
 
I agree there will be a small amount of people who genuinely need hours and hours of phone battery life per day - mobile testers, game developers, etc. But let's face it, that is not who buys these cases. 90% of people who run out of battery do so because they are disorganised (eg forget to charge it overnight.)

As for your second question, I think I use my phone too much. 4 hours is one sixth of a day including sleep, more like a quarter of a waking day. Most people, apart from the small group of genuine users I mention above, do not need to use a phone that much, they are simply addicted to social media etc. I am glad screentime came along because it highlighted my own use, and I am trying to cut it down.

Yeah it is weird how you could need that much juice on the court slate of phones that last so long. Though if you have bad cell service or if you are a reporter who does a lot of their work on their phone (pictures, video, monitoring the news, etc.) you can go through a lot of juice.

But I also think there is a group of folks out there that just enjoy having a fully charged phone. I think they have anxiety when their charge goes down and seeing their phone always fully charged gives them comfort. It is like PTSD from years ago when it was pretty common for your phone to run out of juice if you had a late night on the town. Seems weird to me, but I think that is part of the market for these battery cases.
 
The mophie case has an open bottom. Inexcusable as they're not Apple.

Had the Apple smart battery case for my XS max since it was released and I’m loving it!

I’m used to the the weight now and appreciate the much improved battery life.

I tend to change between this and the Apple leather case. For days that I know I’ll be using the phone heavily, I snap on the smart battery case.

For days where I need a slim phone in my pocket, I ditch it and go for the leather case.

I fear your usage. I thought I was a heavy user, and I easily make it through a day on my XS. You suggesting that the battery on the Max needs improvement is terrifying, lol.
 
You forgot the choice of people who seemingly cannot walk, wait in line (or at a stop light), or "just be" without staring at their phone. Once you become aware of everyone around you staring at their phones instead of just being aware of what is going on around you (or god forbid, conversing with someone next to you), you realize that people use their phones "too much".
How often do you strike up conversations with strangers in the supermarket checkout lane or on a commuter train?

But there is a deeper element in this, people who use their phone a lot probably are also often people who spend a lot of their time alone (or alone among strangers).
 
Mophie would get kicked out of the MFI program because no one is allowed to have a lightning port on these. None of those companies follow the rules.

That’s not true. The MFi program has allowed this since 2014.

https://9to5mac.com/2014/11/18/apple-mfi-summit-third-party-products-lightning-port-new-accessories/

Apple specifically mentioned battery cases with lightning input as something they were planning to see happen:

https://9to5mac.com/2015/01/12/deta...tning-port-specs-for-third-party-accessories/
 
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I agree there will be a small amount of people who genuinely need hours and hours of phone battery life per day - mobile testers, game developers, etc. But let's face it, that is not who buys these cases. 90% of people who run out of battery do so because they are disorganised (eg forget to charge it overnight.)

As for your second question, I think I use my phone too much. 4 hours is one sixth of a day including sleep, more like a quarter of a waking day. Most people, apart from the small group of genuine users I mention above, do not need to use a phone that much, they are simply addicted to social media etc. I am glad screentime came along because it highlighted my own use, and I am trying to cut it down.
The clear majority of my battery usage comes from fitness apps which I use to monitor my exercise regime on which I spend a couple of hours every day. That is the reason why on some days I use 150% of the iPhone's battery capacity (via charging it more than once per day). It's when I go on long hikes when map usage (incl. GPS) amps that up further without a convenient way to recharge the phone (if need be I do so via a power bank but that is less convenient than a battery case).
 
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Whatever happened to making elegant looking cases that don't look like a bigger phone swallowed a smaller phone

That's very easy to do, if you're willing to accept the consequence of compromised cellular reception/transmission. And as a result, greater battery discharge.
 
I watched this and the video on Appleinsider. The Apple Case is hands-down the best, in my opinion. On the Mophie, I don't like the detachable part at the top and the two sockets. And those stupid lights on the back. It's a messy solution. Plus, with the Apple case, you get the tight integration with iOS and how it manages power.
but, can you use CarPlay with the Apple Case? Perhaps not
 
My biggest complaint and why I went with Mophie over Apple is the fact that Apple doesn't have a case for the iPhone X. It's meant for the newer iPhones even though the X and XS have the same dimensions the speaker/microphone is blocked if you were to use the case on the X. To add insult to injury you'll get a message stating this accessory isn't supported. o_O

Newest iOS update supports the case. Been using the XS case with my X for a couple of weeks now. Works like a charm.
 
These cases are for two different types of people/customers in my opinion. This depends on where you live and how you use the external battery to charge your smartphone. If you live in Asia and carry a sling bag,purse,man’s purse or little back pack then many will prefer the portable battery like the ones from Anker. If you carry no purse or any form of bag then you may want one like the one from Apple. Ideally it would be best to have one of each for different situations. Like having running shoes and casual shoes. There is no one is better for all people and all situations. Each has its advantages over the other. Depending on the scenario you are in for the day or two depends on which one you will want to bring along with you.

If you lived in a city like Hong Kong and you bought the iPhone battery pack you would have two choices: 1) leave it on all day 2) Put it in your bag or purse until batter runs low then put it on. Option 2 would mean that you would also need to carry a smartphone case with you as well all the time and leave smartphone case on when not using iPhone battery case/charger until you need to recharge your iPhone.

Those in Asia that carry around an iPhone and iPad prefer to carry a portable battery bank that allows them to charge both or either one of them when needed.

In the US those that use a smartphone holder in a car would run into issues with the iPhone case as it would not be too suitable for all car smartphone holders. I have one though that will work with a good magnetic smartphone holder provided you add the plate on the back of the iPhone charger case.
 
If you live in Asia and carry a sling bag,purse,man’s purse or little back pack then many will prefer the portable battery like the ones from Anker.

Ain’t this the truth. In Hong Kong I see everyone and their mother walking around with a cable coming out of their pocket, purse or backpack and plugged into their phone. It’s pretty crazy. In cities in the US you sometimes see people with battery packs charging their phones but it’s usually with a little six inch cable plugged in while they’re sitting at table at a bar or restaurant. In Asia everyone is charging all day every day.
 
Ain’t this the truth. In Hong Kong I see everyone and their mother walking around with a cable coming out of their pocket, purse or backpack and plugged into their phone. It’s pretty crazy. In cities in the US you sometimes see people with battery packs charging their phones but it’s usually with a little six inch cable plugged in while they’re sitting at table at a bar or restaurant. In Asia everyone is charging all day every day.

When in Hong Kong I also carry a sling pack from Safepack and I leave my battery pack inside it. When battery runs low I attach it to my smartphone. In places like Hong Kong and other big cities people spend most of the day outside and don’t want to walk around with everything stuffed in their pockets. In America people do not walk around (they drive around ) so they throw everything in their cars or keep them in their cars. Different customers have different needs based on where they are at and how they get around.
 
Why do they propose that these are the only choices in a battery case? I opted for a $35 Swaller case from Amazon for my iPhone Xs...same concept, same form factor. It works great. I can't think of a reason why I would ever drop 3x - 4x more for either a Mophie or Apple case.
 
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There’s a decent chance you’ve gotten a counterfeit Mophie. I got one from Amazon and though it bore a passable resemblance to a Mophie I already had, it was clearly a counterfeit and seemed like half of it was hollow lol.

Nope. I've had two mophie cases warrantied by the company. Maybe I just had some bad luck.
 
Nope. I've had two mophie cases warrantied by the company. Maybe I just had some bad luck.
Gotcha. I’ve had decent experience with them, but maybe I’m the outlier lol. Checking Amazon, they seem to be rated 3 to 3-1/2 stars. Since they’re relatively expensive, I’d expect better.
 
Gotcha. I’ve had decent experience with them, but maybe I’m the outlier lol. Checking Amazon, they seem to be rated 3 to 3-1/2 stars. Since they’re relatively expensive, I’d expect better.

I bet if you read a lot of those reviews people knocked a star or two off because of the price. Pretty common to see in Amazon reviews of quality products that cost more than the cheapo competition.
 
I think with these battery cases, they should add in some other functions. There was a mophie at one point that had a storage expansion card with I think 32GB of space. I've seen another with an extra SIM slot. I think with a little creativity, there could be other ideas for making these cases more than just a battery.
 
I bet if you read a lot of those reviews people knocked a star or two off because of the price. Pretty common to see in Amazon reviews of quality products that cost more than the cheapo competition.
I took a look at the juice pack for the 7 Plus. 2.9 star rating overall, 36% of reviews are 1-star—yikes!

I only skimmed through the first couple pages of the 1-star reviews; complaints seem to be mostly about the quality.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/cr/B01..._mb_hist_1?filterByStar=one_star&pageNumber=1
 
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I think with these battery cases, they should add in some other functions. There was a mophie at one point that had a storage expansion card with I think 32GB of space. I've seen another with an extra SIM slot. I think with a little creativity, there could be other ideas for making these cases more than just a battery.

The SD card slot was basically a gimmick. It didn’t give you additional storage space. It just let you offload pictures from your system storage to the SD card so you could delete them from the system storage. If you wanted to view them you had to use a proprietary app. In other words there’s a reason they stopped making it. It sucked.

That only case I could find with an additional SIM was basically using some, again, proprietary, clunky, software. It didn’t give you real dial SIM functionality like the XS series iPhones.
 
Started with Mophie on my iPhone 4 and have used their products on every generation of iPhone since that time. I have had one battery issue with both the iPhone 6+ and Mophie case due to lithium battery failure in both units (they both became very pregnant). I have had a handmade leather belt case made for each model as it came out. Since the 6+, I am still using the same leather case that looks well worn. A silicone case that attracts dust and stuff off of fingers would rapidly look terrible from rubbing the inside of the leather case in no time.

I have the new XS Max Mophie case on order and it will work for me as the others have.I like the fact that the microUSB connector I had to carry for the prior design Mophie batteries is a thing of the past. I will have the ability to choose either a lightening plug for the iPhone or the "C" connector for the Mophie battery or wifi charge the combination. I carry an Anger Power Port PD2 power plug that has the capability to have both of those power cords plugged in a the same time.

I have the best Zagg screen guard in place just like on all prior iPhones and have had free replacements over the years with no questions and no damage to the Apple display.

We all still get to make choices.
 
Ugh.

They're both awful. Why would either company think I would want a big bulge on the back of my phone? Run the case all the way to the top, Mophie.
 
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