Best iPhone 4 rechargeable battery case
I feel like a little bit of a expert when it comes to rechargeable battery cases for the iPhone, I have owned or do own:
Mophie Juice Pack Plus
Mophie Juice Pack Air
Lenmar Rechargeable Battery Case
Incipio Off Grid
XtremeMac Incharge Mobile Battery Case
Phonesuite Elite
In my opinion, those needing extra power will find the convienance of the battery case over those plug in external battery packs well worth the added cost. The external battery packs make it difficult to use your phone in portrait mode and difficult to impossible to operate the phone in landscape mode. Also, finding one that will easily connect with the 30 pin adapter plug with different sized phone cases, especially the more protective type cases such as Otterbox is difficult as well. They fit loose even with thin cases or phones with no case, and if in pocket, easily become disconnected to your phone. Their a real pain in the rear in my opinion and not worth the hassle. The Mophie keychain spare battery is especially cheap and flimsy feeling in my opinion.
A quick ranking of the battery cases I've owned and a brief description of why I places them..
Starting from the best and working our way down to the worst:
1. Phone Suite Elite - Out of all my battery cases, this one charges my iPhone the quickest, as well as provides more than double the battery life. Thinner than the Mophie cases, sexy, I just like the look and feel of the case. A little tweak here and there, and Phone Suite would have a blowout winner.
2. Incipio Off Grid - I'm not a real fan of Incipio's regular cases, but their battery case is downright sexy! It's the thinnest and less obtrusive of all the cases I've owned, and I like that the LED indicator lights face front instead of the back or bottom of the phone. This battery cases fit profile comes at a cost however, it's battery is capable of only charging a dead iPhone to about 60%.
3. Morphie Juice Pack Plus - Mophie is the big name in this arena, and this is their flagship. It does everything right, including having its own button covers for your sleep/wake button and volume buttons. It's design is near flawless, my one gripe is that the camera cutout on the top slide piece of the case makes the plastic too easy to break, especially when removing and putting on the case. This is an issue with many of the battery case designs, however I've only had the plastic on the mophie break, not any of my others. For the steep $99 price, you'd figure they could provide two top covers, much like the Phonesuit does for $20 less.
4. Lenmar - middle of the road performance and I like the looks of the case as well. For the budget minded, I bought this case of bestbuy.com for $35 and at that price it's the steal of the bunch. Good construction, Avg. to above avg. performance. At that price it's impossible to not like this case.
5. Mophie Juice Pack Air - not a fan of this case, had it for a day before I returned it for the Juice Pack Plus.. I think the faux metal siding there on the case in order to emulate the sides of the iPhone looks cheap, the top piece doesn't seem to line up properly with the bottom making it appear crooked when on the phone, the volume and sleep/wake button cutouts make operation of those buttons a difficult excercise. If you have to have a mophie
, do yourself a huge favor going with the superior design and performance of the plus model for $20 bucks more.
XxtremeMac Incharge - This case boasts the largest battery of the bunch. However, my experience puts the actual performance below average. The case is awkward feeling to hold, it's kickstand requires removing the top piece of the case to kick out, it's volume and sleep wake button design is cheap and hideous looking, and so is the on off switch on the case itself. It's the biggest case of the bunch in size, and though I bought mine on sale at RadioShack for $23.99, I wouldn't recommend. Also, the mini USB connector on the case is shoddy, mine broke off in the case when plugging the mini USB cable into the case, rendering the case broken and worthy of the garbage pale after about 2 weeks of use.