Mophie Juice Pack iPhone 16 Battery Case review: slim case with built-in mini power bank

Best Prices Today: Mophie Juice Pack Battery Case for iPhone 16 Pro

While power banks—either wired, wireless or a hybrid of both—have become an essential part of any mobile user’s travelling gadget pack, battery cases for the Apple iPhone remain a relative rarity.

For a long time, Mophie was the market leader and then promptly dropped out of the iPhone battery case race.

The company—famous for its nearly always black mobile accessories—re-entered the iPhone battery case market in 2023 with solutions for the iPhone 15 family, and is back again with a range for all but one of the iPhone 16 range.

If you own an iPhone 16 Plus, you’re out of luck, I’m afraid, as Mophie’s Juice Pack battery case is available for only the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. Plus owners should look to Mophie’s rival Newdery that does offer a battery case for the 16 Plus.

Design

Mophie (which is owned by Zagg) has always preferred a two-piece design for its Juice Pack battery cases. The top part pulls off to allow the users to slip their iPhone into the large bottom section that features the integrated battery plus a USB-C connector for the iPhone to push into.

There are two risks involved here. The two part design can come apart when pulled from your pocket, and this was one of the tendencies that we disliked about earlier Juice Packs.

However, Mophie has made the two-part design much more robust with this iPhone 16 model, and we don’t have any concerns that you’ll inadvertently remove the top part when handling the battery case.

The other area of concern is the USB-C connector. There’s little problem if you leave the iPhone nestled in the case, but if you are forever removing and then sliding the phone back into the case, the risk of being too rough and damaging the iPhones port is one we have seen with past models.

That said, most battery case users leave their iPhone in the case, so as long as you are sensitive when first placing the phone into the case, there’s little to be worried about.

The rival Newdery Battery Case for iPhone 16 removes this physical risk by charging wirelessly within the case, which we like a lot. That case is, however, significantly bulkier than the Mophie.

As with nearly every battery case out there, the color is a singular choice of black. We found the Mophie Juice Pack for iPhone 16 to be rather prone to fingerprints and marks—an obvious fallibility in a product that will often be in the user’s hands.

The back of the case features four LEDs that indicate remaining battery life in the case.

The back also features an integrated passive magnet that allows a strong hold to vent mounts and stands, as well as MagSafe wallets and other magnetic accessories. You cannot, however, wirelessly charge the case or the phone when inside it.

The case itself is slim compared to earlier battery cases, and at 3.6oz (103g) isn’t stupidly heavy, which older battery cases used to be, and is one of the downsides to the rival Newdery battery case that weighs in at 5oz (143g).

Performance tests

The bulk and weight aren’t factors with the Mophie Juice Pack as the built-in battery pack itself isn’t a large one. The model for iPhone 16 Pro that we tested has a capacity of 2800mAh (milliamp hours) or 10.78Wh (Watt hours).

In our tests this gained us a 50% recharge on a completely faded iPhone 16 Pro. That’s likely enough to get you back to a base where you can charge the phone up at your leisure, but not as great a savior as aa slim 5000mAh power bank, although these 5K battery packs average around 70% recharge potential do Mophie is doing well to get 50% out of a battery of half that capacity.

The rival Newdery Battery Case for iPhone 16 Pro that we tested as a comparison has a 5000mAh (18.5Wh) battery that pushed our recharging to 72%, much like the better 5K power banks we have tested.

The compromise there is that the Newdery’s larger battery noticeably bulks out the whole package compared to the much slimmer Mophie.

As such, we commend Mophie for getting a lot out of a smaller battery and keeping the case bulk to a minimum.

Price

The Mophie Juice Pack battery case for iPhone 16, 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max costs $99.95 / £99.95.

A decent 5K wireless power bank costs about half of that but doesn’t double up as a protective case, which we’d always recommend to iPhone users. See our roundup of the best magnetic power banks for iPhone.

The Mophie therefore represents good value for money, offering robust protection and an integrated battery pack to keep you going on the move.

The Chinese Newdery Battery Case is noticeably cheaper at around $30, but is comparatively bulky. It maybe makes a, ahem, case for itself if you are away from a fixed power source for a longer time and need the extra juice while not minding the extra heft and bulk. The Mophie is a nice compromise between power and size.

Should you buy the Mophie iPhone 16 Juice Pack battery case?

We applaud Mophie for making its iPhone 16 Juice Pack battery case slimmer and more robust than previous models, while still giving the user a 50% recharge to their faded iPhone.

Having a battery pack built into a protective case means you don’t have to remember to carry a power bank with you, and functions both to protect your phone and from loss of power.

Best Prices Today: Mophie Juice Pack Battery Case for iPhone 16 Pro