I’ve never felt so dirty in my entire life. I gave the Mophie Juice Pack nothing but praise last year and now I feel used and abused. It shouldn’t surprise me, really. The first review unit that was sent to me basically broke after a few hours. It managed to recharge my iP3G once and then failed to do so ever again. I assumed it was just a faulty unit that wasn’t caught during a QA check. But now I see the light.
The Juice Pack isn’t completely useless. It just won’t charge my iP3G unless it, too, is plugged into a power source, which defeats the purpose of having the ‘backpack’ around. I’ve tried ‘fixing it’ by cleaning off the port and letting it charge to 100 percent but neither have worked. John has one and his seems to be fine. I only bring this up since I’ve had two break on me and thought you should know. Has anyone else encountered such a situation?
In order to give publications the opportunity to review products as early as possible, we produced a small quantity of product as “review samples” only. This small production run resulted in a greater than normal rate of defect, which was the result of a safety mechanism being calibrated to be too sensitive and causing units to shut off at higher (but normal) operating temperatures.
This problem was caught early and was immediately resolved before units were shipped to retailers or end users. Here at mophie, we are very confident in the product we have produced and have taken the time and resources to create the most useful, safe and reliable product possible. We stand behind this statement with a warranty that covers the product from defect for up to one year. Our customer service team is always available to talk to customers and handle any product related questions they may have.
Mine is barely lasting a day, fell and cracked open, lost the rubber sides due to adhesive that melts at pocket temperature, and the coating is coming off. Other then that it is fine.
I have a first gen and a 3G and they both work great.
you guys still haven’t tried out the Powerstick I’ve been trying to push like a fricken used car salesman… give it a shot man
http://www.powerstick.com
Mine broke before I could even get to a review, adam.
doh! I just bought a boat!
no, really? are you kidding? Those things don’t break, they’re made in Canada!
Testfreaks gave it a decent review:
http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/review/powerstick-usb-powered-portable-charger/
Not quite sure I would want to spend $60 on 700 mAh – that is not even one full battery charge of the iPhone.
Small charge E, I agree, but it’s fast and versatile and is a great universal charger…
I walked up to the powerstick booth at pepcom and was all “Yo, some guy named adam keeps bugging us to review this. Got one I could review?”
The guys response: “Go buy one at best buy”.
A DEFECTIVE, GARBAGE PRODUCT AND COMPANY. DO NOT BUY. Repeated attempts to communicate with Mophie about a whole range of issues about this incompetent product receives only a meaningless form letter reply that shows that no one has actually read my letters. It’s even impossible to register the product, so there’s no warranty. They are stealing the customers’ money with a product that is designed to fall apart immediately, and not perform the function it claims. This is FRAUD.
I have several, which have not shown any abnormal wear and tear (but only about 1 month of use so far). That being said, the LED’s are frequently totally wrong about how much juice is left, and they infrequently fail to charge the phone. Of note, most of the time they appear to be not charging the phone, what is happening is that the Mophie is depleated (appropriately not charging the phone) but it is erroneously reporting 4/4 LEDs worth of charge. I have seen this on 4+ devices, so it is clearly a systemic failure.
Even more important, you need to realize that when the phone is plugged into the Mophie, the phone uses more power than it does when it is unplugged. Thus, even though you are doubling the battery capacity, you most certainly are NOT doubling the duration of phone use.
Having the EXACT same problem with mine. First one I bought wasn’t charging my 3G so I returned it for another one. Second one worked great for a few months but now it reports the remaining battery life incorrectly. I’ve had 4 leds go down to none in a span of 5 minutes without even using the phone. Then, when I plug the USB cable into it, it magically shows as 2 leds with the 3rd flashing. WTF?! Then, when I contacted Mophie, they kept asking me for an invoice number – even though I repeatedly told them that I bought it at Best Buy! Definitely the last time Mophie gets my money.
If you want a quality product, get the IV from fastmac. It is so superior to the Mophie in every way, gets vastly more power, includes a light, retains the ability to dock in your iPhone Dock, etc. – Unlike Mophie, they spend their $$ on the product, and not on ads everywhere… And it is made in the USA…
http://fastmac.com/iv.php
3100mAh TruePower Battery
Up to 24 Hours of Talk Time
Up to 72 Hours of Audio Playback
Up to 21 Hours of Video Playback
Up to 30 Days of Standby Time
Flash Light for Emergency Use and Low Light Photos
USB Port to Charge Multiple Devices
Dock Connector for iPhone & Universal Dock
We’ve got one in the office being reviewed now, E.
I’m curious to read the review. I have had one since it started shipping, and I am very pleased. I can even charge my iPhone without pulling it out of its usual case by using the USB port (great for just a small charge, and allows me to use the light for side lighting instead of directly on the subject)!
Lastly, I really like that they let you register the unit and provide an upgrade when the next gen iPhone comes out that allows you to retain the battery part yet they will upgrade the casing for you. All in all, a well thought out product…
So far (four months and counting) mine has worked perfectly. No complaints at all…I guess I got lucky.
Have two of these; one is fine, zero problems, and use it almost daily to re-juice my iP3G. I love it, and you’d be hard pressed to ever get me to give it up. (cue Rick Astley)
2nd one however, had the same problem as one of the other readers reported, where the bumper strips melting off the sides due to what seems to be faulty glue.
At the very least, the QA at Mophie is inconsistent. I wouldn’t go so far as to claim fraud or anything of the sort – however when you offshore a design like this for cheap-ass production overseas, this is what you get.
Had one. but it worked like **** (= Not ‘a charm’). Bought the 3GJUICE , same power, much smaller and no problems. Has good reviews on Amazon and NYT.
3G Juice buys his batteries from iPWR and rebrands them. My buddy is the iPWR guy … his site is http://www.ipwr.com and use this all caps coupon code to save 5% off your total purchase: VIDBOXNET
Mine can’t charge only If it’s pluged in to the mini USB port wats wrong???????
I have bought 2 units now.
The first has been great as far as having lots of battery power onhand. I feel like I can get a good grip on the phone also.
The big problem for me is the polymer battery seems to be rattling around inside the 1st unit and roughly once a month it lands in some kind of position that seems to cause a reverse discharge? The unit goes dead after a very short period of time – 1/2 hour and heats up considerably when this happens.
The other 29 days a month it’s my best friend and I have to say I’m happy with it.
The strips did peel off the side – crazy glue fixed that beautifully. You do what ya gotta do.
The soft touch finish will start peeling off after a week – sad but true. It’s the battery power I wanted anyway, not the looks so much.
I’m hoping the new one I just bought doesn’t have the discharge problem or any of the above problems I just read about on this site!
My 1st one failed in about 2 weeks. The juice pack won’t charge the iphone although the LEDs show it’s full. mstation was very helpful, 1stly shown me how to reset the juice pack. That involves using a butter knife insert into the connector. if it doesn’t reset, you need to plug the USB charger as well. However, my 1st juice pack need more and more reset after a few days, it will interfere the WIFI as well so the iphone drop out frequently. Finally, I ‘ve got a replacement from mstation. It worked nicely the 1st two weeks and it needs reset again! M-station has got to fix the product’s quality problem
Stupid question, but won’t that ‘reset’ method cause a shock?
I’ve just noticed M-Station has updated their website and got rid of the Mophie Juice Pack for 3 G in their product range
I have 3 Juice Packs for IP3G, and am looking for something else.
1) Worked well at first, then stopped charging phone.
2) After a month or so, the glued-in strips on the side of the juice pack came off, making a sticky mess . Not sure why they were on in the first place?
No more for me.
I got the Mophie in January, and in the first month, I’ve lost the two rubber strips on the side, and I spend an hour to completely remove them and clean up the goo-ey stuff. It’s not as comfortable to hold, but it’s better than having all sorts of stickiness everytime you hold your phone.
The charging issue is the same exact thing as described in this article as well. On the charger, by itself, it would report 4 LEDs, then I put it on the phone, and it actually starts charging the phone, for about 1 minute, then the LEDs go to 0, and the phone stops charging, or the LEDs are on 3 or 4, but the phone isn’t charging.
Moreover, syncing the phone through the Mophie USB is total crap, the phone completely resets when I plug it in to my MBP.
Also, having a charger (the Mophie) constantly connect to the iPhone seems to have completely wasted the iPhone battery life, and for some reason, the iPhone now doesn’t hold charge long at all, gets warm constantly, even when I’m not doing anything. Not sure if it’s the Mophie, but I’d feel better blaming native battery issues on it.
That’s one crappy product!! Or they had a defective batch… in which case… I freaking want a replacement unit!! it was $99 for god’s sake!
A few years agon I bought a mophie juice pack for and Iphone 2G and it was non functionnal when I got it. The Replacement was quick and painless, but still it was an inconvenience.
Now in August 2009, I got my brand new mophie juice pack for 3G and this one too was defective. Even when fully charged, the mophie will charge the phone for a very short time then stop by itself, the light in the back will not light up until I plug the mophie into the charger for a few seconds to reactivate it.
They should test their units fully before shipping, it would save everyone (including them) time and money
well, I got my third unit – Failed also with the same behavior
But this time I started to see a pattern. First of all they all have the same serial number except a few digit, so I think they are all coming from the same “bad” batch.
Next I think the problem was not with the battery itself but more with the lights status in the back. They don’t show the real battery level, so you might think you still have full battery charge, while you only have 15 minutes left.
Specially after it dies, if you plug it in for 2 sec, you get 3-4 light right away, so you might think it was fully charged after all, but that is not the case, you just gave it a few minutes of battery life by pluging it into the wall charger.
Once you consider that, there might be a way to use that juice pack anyway if you use common sense and charge the unit FULLY when you think its about to die, and not taking into consideration the lights level at all to know when its time to unplug it from the wall charger.
its not ideal, but the other alternative is to keep sending them back until they get rid of that batch.