the tindog coffeehouse

I’ve had my iPhone for about 10 months, and almost since Day 1 I’ve used a Mophie Juice Pack Air to provide both protection for it as well as extra battery life. For the most part, I’ve been pretty happy with it, even though it was expensive and even though it added a lot of extra bulk to the phone.

While some people had complained that the Juice Packs negatively impact cellular reception, I had never really thought about until yesterday. We were waiting for church to start and I wanted to check something online really quick, but I couldn’t get a signal. Just one row in front of me, however, another guy was happily browsing on his iPhone with a full 3G connection. The only difference? He only had a standard plastic case on his phone.

Curious, I ran some network speed tests later from my kitchen, home office, and bedroom — three places where I’ve gotten historically bad reception. In two of those tests (the office and bedroom), I couldn’t get a 3G signal at all and could just barely get an Edge connection. I then took the Juice Pack off and ran the same tests. The kitchen test was a little slower, but the others were much faster. Needless to say, I was shocked at how big of a difference removing the Juice Pack made.

I did the same test at work, yet another location where I’ve always gotten bad service. And again, removing the Juice Pack made a huge difference.

While I hate giving up the convenience of having an external battery for my iPhone, I’m at the point where I don’t feel like I have a choice. I’m tired of either dropping calls or not even being able to make calls in the first place. If switching to a standard case will help that, then I guess that’s what I’ll have to do.

Previously:
13 things I would change about the iPhone
OK, so I got an iPhone. So what?