Review: Brookstone iPhone extended battery (616672P)

I bought one of these last week and have been playing with it since coupled with my iPhone 3GS. Basically, it's a small ish 1200ma Lithium Ion battery and a USB charger. It charges quickly in under 4 hours for a full charge. Once charged then it can bring my iPhone up maybe 50% before it's empty. 50% isn't bad, I'd have preferred it to be capable of fully charging a 3GS but it may be better on a 3G or original iPhone which have smaller internal batteries I think.

There isn't much else to say about it, it's definitely something that I'll use as it's very handy on trips having it. Something I'd like to see is a cable to attach it to the iPhone rather than plug straight in, then I could attach it and keep in my bag or something without them separating.

For 50 bucks, its not bad.

Comments

[Mac]

Have you heard of the Mophie Juice Pack? I've heard good things about it, maybe something to check out as an alternative to this for extended battery life

-Mac
@renewalclock

[DD]

People always mention the Mophie Juice Air or some equivalent case-batt, but fail to consider that it reduces reception. So yeah, it's convenient to have a case that's also a battery, but do you really want to lose those last few bars of signal in an important situation just to have longer battery life? As I see it, there's so far no good alternative but to have a pocket add-on battery.

[Bp]

I'm using the mophie for the first time right now. I like that you can see how much charge is left on the external pack and switch it on and off as needed. All the while keeping itenclosed in a case, which must be removed for docking or conventional charging.

There is a larger Brookstone external charger (sku #634253)
that is a tad bit smaller than the iPhone itself. However it seems to only be sold in their airport stores. It can charged the phone 3 times over and has a flashlight on it as well. I'd just rather not have to tot a phone, battery, and cable in my pocket but am still considering switching.