MiLi Power Pack Review

The iPhone is not known for its long battery life. My brother complains that he has to charge his iPhone daily or else risk running out of juice in the middle of the day. But what if you’re in the middle of the trip? Or you somehow forgot your iPod cable?

What you need is a way to extend the battery of your device. The MiLi Power Pack is a casing-type battery pack for the iPhone. You can choose to attach your iPhone onto it if you’re into bulky phones or just use it for charging on the go where you can still use it to place calls without any dangling wires connected to it. It can also charge other iPods and devices that use USB for charging as well.

Design

We got the white MiLi Power Pack for review which has a glossy, hard plastic finish. The iPhone fits snugly onto its dock and will protect the back and underside of your device. However, I won’t completely trust it to hold the iPhone intact having no other way to keep your phone connected to the dock, like a top lid perhaps.

There’s a single button surrounded by four blue LED lights that serves as the battery indicator (25% per light) for the Power Pack. The button is there just to check how much charge is left on the Power Pack.

There’s also two USB ports on the underside. You use the IN to charge the Power Pack and the OUT to charge another device via USB, like another phone perhaps. A USB cable is provided in the package.

Performance

Based on an actual test, charging the 2000 mAh battery of the Power Pack took about 4 and a half hours.

As for charging another device with it, I tried it on my iPod Touch 4G and I was able to charge it from 2% to 100% in about 2 and a half hours. There was still two lights left on the Power Pack after fully charging my iPod Touch.

There was no effect on making calls with your iPhone while attached to the Power Pack when using it in handset mode. But when we tried to put it in speaker mode, our recipient heard soft static noise during our call.

While your iPod device is connected to the Power Pack, you can still plug it into your PC to sync with iTunes so you don’t need to remove your device.

Summary

The Power Pack is compatible with the iPhone 2G, 3G, 3GS, and the iPod Touch. Aside from that, you can also charge other mobile devices with it making it really handy for traveling. However, I would not really advise using it as your primary iPhone case because it might get dislodged from constant handling.

If you want a more secure extended battery case for your iPhone, MiLi has the thin Power Skin, Power Spring and also the Power Spring 4 for the iPhone 4. Do note though that these only supports the iPhone and not other devices. If you want a universal battery charger, check out our review of the MiLi Power Crystal.

The MiLi Power Pack is available for Php3,200 and you can get it from Power Mac Center, The A.Shop, and Switch.