Charging an iPhone with external batteries

[aevan]

I never had any issues with iPhone batteries - I had several iPhones and they all worked fine. Sure, the battery life would decrease over time, but nothing significant. However, my previous iPhone (an iPhone 6) started acting weirdly - the battery would start dying at 40-20% remaining (at least according to the indicator) and the phone would have to be recharged. I tried restoring, doing full charge cycles, nothing.

I had that phone replaced and it must've been a faulty component. But that's not the issue here. That iPhone was the only iPhone I charged with my Mophie external battery. One of the features of this battery is fast charging, and it should be ok - I mean, it's even sold through Apple's own site. But, all the other iOS devices I charged only with their own power adapters or by hooking them up to the Mac.

The battery issue is probably not related to the Mophie battery, but still, I wanted to ask your opinion. Is using these batteries on a regular basis, erm, safe for the phone - in your experience? I'm sure a lot of you guys and girls use some kind of external battery and Mophie is a well-known manufacturer, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.

 

[jpn]

I never had any issues with iPhone batteries - I had several iPhones and they all worked fine. Sure, the battery life would decrease over time, but nothing significant. However, my previous iPhone (an iPhone 6) started acting weirdly - the battery would start dying at 40-20% remaining (at least according to the indicator) and the phone would have to be recharged. I tried restoring, doing full charge cycles, nothing.

I had that phone replaced and it must've been a faulty component. But that's not the issue here. That iPhone was the only iPhone I charged with my Mophie external battery. One of the features of this battery is fast charging, and it should be ok - I mean, it's even sold through Apple's own site. But, all the other iOS devices I charged only with their own power adapters or by hooking them up to the Mac.

The battery issue is probably not related to the Mophie battery, but still, I wanted to ask your opinion. Is using these batteries on a regular basis, erm, safe for the phone - in your experience? I'm sure a lot of you guys and girls use some kind of external battery and Mophie is a well-known manufacturer, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.

hi

i used the mophie when i had an iPhone 5. it was good to add a super amount of backup battery but it:
- was heavy
- needed to charge via a USB micro
- difficult to get on-off

the issue of whether or not the mophie is safe or not is a good question. it is likely to be safe however as it meets the Made for iPhone standard.

additional info: when i bought an iPhone 6s, i also bought an apple smart battery case as well.
i really like the apple smart battery case because:
- the app that is installed on your phone that lets you see the battery pack power and the iPhone battery case power as well. it really just works. and it really does either charge the battery pack or the iPhone battery depending on its own firmware and you don't need to do anything. no buttons to push, etc
- the battery case firmware is what manages the smart transition of power charge or power drain. in non-apple battery cases, including Mophie, there is no firmware that controls this. and in batteries, this type of software controller is what really matters when it comes to ensuring that either trickle charging or whatever is done correctly. this takes the worry of needing to decide to charge your battery before it gets down below a certain charge, or taking it off the charging cable, etc etc.
- its light and easy to get on and off
- probably best of all it uses the iPhone Lightening cable
- you can charge the battery pack itself if it is not attached to the iPhone

i really recommend it.
thanks.
hph.

 

[Skorpio]

^^^ Another thing I'd like add about the Apple battery case is that Apple claims the case does not interfere with cellular antenna lines/signals due to it's design (as some think the case design is ugly), and the battery cases that cover the entire back of phones have been known to have signal problems which could lead to more stress and heat on a phone's battery.
OP, as far as safe/issues I cannot confirm. But, I have heard that new technology batteries like Li-ion batteries need to keep flowing charge regularly to have optimal life, and keeping these batteries at 100% charge while "plugged in" (being the battery case) for most of it's life can degrade performance and life. I personally try to charge my phone at no lower than 40-50%, and keeping the phone/battery out of high temperature heat levels, and I haven't yet seen any sudden battery issues with any phone I've had. I could just be lucky too

 

[scaramoosh]

You're only going to have your phone for 2 years, you're not going to do any damage to your phone in that time as you're using it every day. If you have a battery case extending your battery, you wont notice any damage done simply because the higher degradation would be negated by the larger overall battery.

I wouldn't worry about it, besides it's easy to replace an iPhone battery.

 

[aevan]

Thanks everyone for the answers.