A portable charger made for your iPhone and iPad

When I first started reviewing the Mophie Powerstation Plus 8X, I thought I was reviewing yet another portable charger for your smartphone or tablet. Then I noticed the “Made for iPhone, iPad & iPod” on the front of the box which confused me a little bit. Why would a USB charger only work with the iPhone, iPad or iPod?

Turns out the answer is underneath the little “door” on the top of the charger. When you open the door, you get access to two cables—a lightning connector cable and a standard USB cable.

The lightning connector plugs right into your iPhone, iPad or iPod to charge your device giving you a little over 8 extra hours of power for your iPhone and over 13 extra hours for your iPad. The USB cable plugs into your laptop, computer or USB power adapter for charging the Mophie Powerstation itself.

More helpful or more limiting?

While this solves the problem for iPhone, iPad and iPod owners of not having to carry their original charging cable around with them, I feel like it makes the overall device more limiting. The manufacturer must have thought this too because they included an extra USB port on the side for use with your own USB cable and whatever USB chargeable device you want. So yes, you can technically charge your Android smartphone or any other non-Apple device with the Mophie Powerstation Plus 8X.

Cord length could be an issue

One issue with the built-in charging cables is that they are very short, as in no more than 3 inches in length. The upside to this is you don’t have to deal with a mess of tangled cables when you want to charge your iPhone with the Mophie Powerstation Plus 8X. The downside is that you can’t really use your iPhone while it’s charging unless you don’t mind holding a heavy battery at the same time.

Same goes with the USB cable. Because it is so short, your only real choice is to plug it into your laptop and set both on a flat surface. You can’t plug it into a USB power adapter or computer because the battery will end up dangling in the air which will either damage the USB connector or cause the charger to unplug and fall to the ground. An alternative is to use a USB extension cable but that kind of defeats the whole purpose of not carrying any extra cables with you.

Recommendation

If you own exclusively Apple products like the iPhone and iPad and really like the idea of not carrying around your original charging cables, the Mophie Powerstation Plus 8X might be a perfect fit for you. On the other hand, if you have other non-Apple USB devices you want to charge, you can probably skip the built-in lightning connector model and get a smaller, lighter Mophie Powerstation that works with all of your devices using your original charging cables.

Note: The Mophie Powerstation Plus 8X in this review was provided to me by Verizon Wireless and can be purchased at your local Verizon Wireless store or at www.verizonwireless.com.