The Ultimate Guide to iPhone 17 Charging Accessories

There’s nothing worse than seeing a 10% low power alert when you’re halfway through a holiday flight or in the middle of taking family photos around the tree. That’s why it’s important to ensure you’ve packed the proper power for your iPhone, especially in the midst of a busy holiday travel season, where it’s easy to forget those essentials while you’re packing the gifts, kids, and pets into the car.

In Part 3 of our series, I’ve rounded up the power accessories that have actually earned a permanent spot in my family’s travel bags. While there are plenty of basic cables and power bricks that will get the job done, I’m focusing instead on the best on-the-go experiences, MagSafe innovations, and high-speed chargers that make the iPhone 17 experience truly seamless and will be a welcome gift for frequent travelers or anyone who’s nervous about getting through the day on a full charge.

Mophie Juice Pack: Power on the Go

The Juice Pack likely needs no introduction to long-time iPhone users — Mophie’s first charging case debuted in 2006, although it wasn’t until the iPhone came along that it became a hit. Since then, it’s become the best-known battery case on the market, and the company continues to release updated versions for each year’s new iPhones.

This year, there’s a Juice Pack for the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air, although Mophie has sadly left the iPhone 17 out for now. That’s unfortunate, as even though the iPhone 17 shares a very similar design to the iPhone 16, the dimensions are just different enough to be incompatible with last year’s Juice Pack model.

The Juice Pack for iPhone Air is easily the most useful, delivering 60% more power to ensure you get through an entire day while adding minimal bulk. I didn’t get to try this one, but based on Mophie’s very solid track record, I’m confident in saying it will be a solid choice for any iPhone Air user out there who needs extended runtimes without the awkwardness of slapping on MagSafe battery packs, although it naturally takes away from the svelte design of Apple’s new model.

The Juice Pack for iPhone 17 Pro Max, which is the one I’ve been testing and using, is arguably less necessary as an everyday carry considering how large the internal battery already is. However, it’s still a great way to ensure you have power to spare when you know you’ll be away from a charger for an extended period of time — or just don’t feel like dealing with the hassle of topping up your iPhone.

The 3,600 mAh battery pack inside promises 50% additional run time, but as I wrote years ago, it’s worth mentioning that battery cases lean into a different power strategy than external battery packs that can actually help to preserve your battery health.

The Case for Improved Battery Health

Most folks who use MagSafe battery packs tend to only pop them on when their internal battery is getting low, and there’s been a tendency to use battery cases in the same way. However, that doesn’t make a lot of sense when your iPhone is wearing the case all day anyway.

Ten years ago, Apple released its own Smart Battery Case for the iPhone, a short-lived product that distinguished itself from the competition by the lack of an off switch. In that product, Apple showed us the “right” way to use a battery case: slap it on your iPhone at the start of the day and then run from the external battery until it’s dead, using the iPhone’s internal battery as the backup.

While Mophie’s Juice Packs still include a power button, I strongly recommend leaving it on from the start. Like all lithium-ion batteries, the iPhone battery is rated for a set number of charge cycles, after which it begins losing capacity. By running from the case, you avoid using up your internal battery. Plus, it takes more energy to charge a battery than to simply run the phone from an external source, so you’ll get more efficiency out of the Juice Pack this way.

This is where the newer Adaptive Power features in iOS 26 and the classic charging limit toggles become incredibly useful. You can set your charging limit to 80% or 90% in Settings, ensuring the case keeps you at a healthier level all day without stressing the internal cells.

Just keep in mind that you’re still strapping a heat-generating battery to the back of your iPhone, so you should not only turn the case off when you’re engaging in CPU-intensive activities like playing AAA games — you may want to remove it entirely. Apple’s new vapor chamber cooling is great, but it’s not magic; the heat has to go somewhere, and it doesn’t help when it’s fighting to get through a thick case with a 3,600 mAh battery inside.

Design and Features

You’ll be bulking up your iPhone quite a bit with the Juice Pack, but it doubles as a reasonably protective case against the bumps and scrapes of everyday life. It’s rated for six-foot drop protection and includes raised edges to protect the screen and a decent amount of grippiness to help you keep a hold on your iPhone, plus a spot to attach a lanyard.

This year’s models also bring USB-C audio passthrough for the first time, which will be a boon for those who want to plug in wired USB-C headphones for listening to Apple Music in lossless quality.

There’s naturally also USB-C passthrough charging, which prioritizes topping up your iPhone battery before the one in the case.