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"  On Sale Date: Now Price: $149 (16GB); $179 (32GB) When buying an iPhone, tempting to save your money on gigabytes. Opting for less storage space means saving $100 or $200, and when you&amp;#039;re already handing over a serious chunk of change for a new phone, settling for 16GB might seem like an acceptable tradeoff. Fast-forward six months, though, and your phone is jam-packed with music, photos, files, and videos, and taking yet another selfie requires deleting a song to free up the space. Mophie wants to help. Since releasing its first Juice Pack in 2008, Mophie has been obsessed with improving your smartphone&amp;#039;s battery life via its Juice Packs for iPhone or Powerstations that can charge up any USB-enabled device. Now, Mophie goes multifunctional, bringing you a boost of juice and a little extra memory. From its looks, the Space Pack is just a standard Juice Pack Air with built-in 16GB or 32GB of storage, depending on the severity of your storage needs. Does the Mophie deliver on its promise of storage freedom for the iPhone, or do its limitations stifle its usefulness? Design  Buying a charging case means your smartphone is about to get a lot bigger. For the iPhone, this isn&amp;#039;t a huge problem, as the smartphone&amp;#039;s overall design is rather diminutive. But the Mophie Space Pack will add a great deal of weight, size, and general awkwardness to your device. The case&amp;#039;s plastic coating has a nice glossy finish, but the silver siding (at least on the white version) looks cheap, making you painfully aware of the plastic cocoon that hides the aluminum design of your iPhone. The volume buttons and power button are also harder to push when you&amp;#039;re Mophie-equipped. But these are all setbacks users sign on for when investing in almost any battery-powered case, so Mophie&amp;#039;s really just continuing the trend.   Don&amp;#039;t mistake &amp;quot;continuing the trend&amp;quot; as a phrase of complete derision; Mophie design already has a lot going for it. The iPhone requires a tricky bit of engineering so that the case doesn&amp;#039;t muffle the speakers and cover the charging port and headphone jack. Mophie sticks with tradition and equips the iPhone with front-firing speakers, which actually improve volume slightly. The Space Pack comes with an additional audio accessory so that any standard headphones or earbuds can reach through the case&amp;#039;s additional half-inch of plastic. It&amp;#039;s best to think of this as a permanent accessory for your headphones rather than the case itself. If you leave the short wire plugged in, the iPhone still thinks headphones are attached\u2014a small annoyance, but one easily solved. Perhaps the best part of the case, and another carryover from previous models, is its microUSB charging port. I found this to be more useful useful day-to-day than the case&amp;#039;s extra storage. Now, any iPhone can be charged with a lightning cable or a MicroUSB. Do you split time between Apple and Android friends? The search for a charge when your phone is running on fumes just got a lot easier. Battery and Storage The Mophie Space Pack comes with 1700mAh battery, essentially double the battery of any iPhone or iPhone 5s. On the back of the case, four lights display your Mophie&amp;#039;s lifespan until it needs another charge. A small switch next to these lights is the general power button for the case itself. To access the on-board storage, users need to download the free Space Pack app. When launching the application, Mophie provides a short tutorial explaining how the case and storage system works. Go through the app and sync whatever photos, videos, music, and files you want to sync with the space pack. You computer also recognizes the Space Pack as a standalone flash device making it easy to load and unload digital treasures on the Mophie onto your laptop or desktop. As for the app, it&amp;#039;s well-designed and borrows many aesthetic choices from iOS 7. The user interface is reasonably intuitive, displaying your storage options, how much space you have left, and your case&amp;#039;s battery life. Note: all information stored on the Space Pack must be used through this app, and while users can open media in other applications, it&amp;#039;s much easier and less time-consuming to just work within the Space Pack app.  Usability  I would describe using the Mophie Space Pack as mediocre at best. One of the hardest things to do, at least for my 32Gb review unit, was to access the app itself. I was constantly redirected to the tutorial clip instead of to my data. Only through a combination of button pressing, switch flipping, plugging and unplugging, was I able to get to my stuff. Also, my computer wouldn&amp;#039;t always recognized the Space Pack. These things didn&amp;#039;t happen consistently, but it was enough for it to cause concern. The app works reasonably well, but pinwheels every once in a while. And any file type the iPhone doesn&amp;#039;t support, the Space Pack won&amp;#039;t either, so no .MKV files. However, you can open the files from the Space Pack with a VLC player or other applications that might have better luck, so not all hope is lost.  Bottom Line After spending a week with the Mophie Space Pack, I&amp;#039;d be resistant to recommend it. With a price tag of $150 for 16GB and $180 for 32GB, you&amp;#039;d be better served just buying a smartphone with expandable storage (Android) or splurging for more space on your next iPhone purchase.  But as far as cases go, you won&amp;#039;t find one more useful. However, for the Space Pack&amp;#039;s utility comes at a expense of convenience and design. If you need the battery and need the space, the Mophie will serve you well. For everyone else, just remember the importance of gigabytes when it&amp;#039;s time to buy your next phone. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/reviews/a10365/mophie-space-pack-review-breathing-room-16640953/>