A car phone holder should be visible and easily accessible, but ensure you can keep your attention on the road. It can be attached to the thin clips and should secure your handset for easy access and quick viewing. Vent mounts tend to be great options for those with limited space in their vehicles. The expandable arms have rubberized padding and have metal internals for a sturdy hold.
It also has a rotating mechanism for easily changing the phone’s orientation, which feels very secure. I was able to mount a Google Pixel 3 XL comfortably, as well as a Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus. Both are large devices, and I was using a wallet case with one of them, which adds plenty of width and thickness to the handset. Its smaller profile also means one can easily accommodate the arms in locations where no buttons or ports are covered.
One thing I loved about using a vent mount is the fact that cool air is always hitting the back of the phone when the AC is on.
My main complaint about the Belkin Car Vent Mount isn’t exactly its own fault, but I’ve seen other manufacturers come up with solutions.
The accessory might be a solid product, but that doesn’t help much when your vents aren’t as sturdy. Sadly, my car’s vents aren’t made for carrying large, heavy phones.
This means the phone and mount can move around when turning or taking on tight curves.
Six months later, there still isn’t a MagSafe car charger
They are a perfect gadget for the modern age — a design problem with no perfect solution, price points that usually land at the higher end of the impulse-buy zone, and completely well-suited for targeted Instagram ads. “People who have bought a Qi-based car mount in the last year,” the marketing director of a tiny accessory company sternly instructs the Facebook ad-targeting system. All of this means I was very excited when Apple added MagSafe charging to the new iPhone 12 line.
your phone onto the mount, and drive away, laughing at the suckers fumbling with their cradles and motorized friction arms and other unwieldy ideas.
I have been using a review unit of the Belkin Car Vent Mount PRO with MagSafe, or BCVMPwM, for a couple months now. “Why aren’t you everything I hoped and dreamed of when I looked at the marketing photos on social media?” Then you will put everything back into place at the next stop light, sheepishly glance at your partner, and slowly realize they have completely stopped paying attention to these sorts of antics anymore.
People say they are kinda slow and have audio latency issues, but c’mon — a single dink! Why isn’t there an approved MagSafe car mount with built-in wireless charging after six months?
Belkin Car Vent Mount review
Sometimes the humble phone and Google Maps is a better option, especially if you don’t want to buy a whole new car just to get CarPlay or Android Auto support. No accessories are provided in the box because none are needed, so if you want a simple mount this might be the one for you. The mount itself can also rotate, making it easy to run your phone in portrait and landscape orientation depending on the app you’re using.
Attaching the mount to your car is a simple case of finding a spare air vent and sliding it on.
The part of the mount that grips the air vent is solid enough not to move around while still being soft enough that you don’t need to worry about scratching anything. It also has horizontal and vertical slots — perfect for those with air vents with slats in both directions.
The Belkin mount holds your phone with two telescoping grips, one on each side. The grips are solid and there was no way my iPhone 12 Pro was going to fall out, even over the most aggressive of speed bumps. The same can be said for the mount itself — its grip of my oddly-shaped air vent was strong and there’s little more you can hope for from this kind of design. One extra benefit of such a small design is the way the mount almost disappears when you aren’t using it. That isn’t something that can be taken for granted given the thousands of cheap mounts available on Amazon and other marketplaces.
Belkin Car Vent Mount PRO with MagSafe review
Belkin is one of the biggest accessory makers on the planet and it makes some great stuff. This time around it gets close to doing it again, but a couple of key issues mean the Car Vent Mount PRO with MagSafe comes up short.
This time around it gets close to doing it again, but a couple of key issues mean the Car Vent Mount PRO with MagSafe comes up short. But the Belkin Car Mount PRO’s execution falls short, and that’s a real shame.
Priced at $40, the Belkin Car Vent Mount PRO with MagSafe isn’t expensive as such, but it’s a relatively costly option considering some of the cheaper alternatives on the market — you can probably blame all those magnets for that. The Belkin Car Vent Mount PRO with MagSafe is a robust slab of metal and plastic.
The mount’s grip has slots in both horizontal and vertical orientation — perfect for those with air vents with slats in both directions. But it’s also surprisingly large in terms of the distance from the grips that attach it to the vent, and where your iPhone sits.
I mentioned that earlier, but it’s a bee that’s in my bonnet and I still think anyone using the MagSafe name should be throwing in some sort of charging capabilities. Belkin could right its wrongs by building the mount out of lighter material and making the grip arm shorter, and adding wireless charging wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Belkin Universal Car Mount Dashboard/Windshield
Otherwise nice quality and will not damage your phone due to the scrape in the holder part. Also a handy hole to hang your charger in so that it no longer swings through the car but is immediately nearby.
Belkin Car Vent Mount for Smartphones: No, This One Works!
I haven’t had much luck with mounts that use a suction cup to adhere to my dash or windshield (which isn’t legal in some states). Both functions depend on design and materials, the Belkin Car Vent Mount stands out in both places.
Put another way, I don’t expect it to break—I’ve broken cheap vent mounts in the past. The mount rotates 180 degrees in both directions, so you can put your iPhone (or Android device, if that’s your thing) in whatever orientation or angle you want.
I mention this in part to make it clear that I’m a high maintenance princess who is particular as #$&% about these sorts of things. In any event, I don’t have the room to use my iPhone in landscape mode without obscuring that display I mentioned.
But for you, dear reader, I tested the Belkin Car Vent Mount in both portrait and landscape mode. If anyone has any experience with larger mobile devices using the new Belkin Car Vent Mount, please drop a note in the comments. The grips are double injection molded rubber, and the spring-loaded mechanism is strong enough to hold my iPhone without being difficult to open. In fact, I found it easiest to hold the mount in one hand, put my iPhone in it, and then (re)attach it to my vent.
Review: Belkin’s Car Vent Mount PRO Offers Easy MagSafe Mounting
I took several trips on a fairly bumpy road and had no problems with the magnetic connection with an iPhone 12 or a heavier iPhone 12 Pro Max even at fast speeds and during turns. My car’s charging ports are located in the center console under a lid, so it’s not a convenient setup for my situation and I wasn’t able to test it with a cable attached.
The Car Vent PRO can be used in either portrait or landscape mode with an attached iPhone, so depending on your in-car setup and how you prefer Maps to look, you can get it working the way that you like.
To facilitate use in either orientation, the Car Vent PRO itself rotates thanks to an adjustable ball joint that can also change the angle of the phone as needed.
The magnetic connection held up well in my testing, and the adjustable ball joint allows the mount to work in most vehicle setups.
Review: Belkin MagSafe Car Vent Mount Pro – good, but not ‘pro’ [Video]
A little over two months after the release of the new iPhone 12, and we still only have a handful of third-party MagSafe accessories on the market. While a magnetic car mount seems like a natural fit for the MagSafe ecosystem, is Belkin’s new accessory worth it?
I usually worry about the lack of grip on the mount, but the silicone tips do a very good job securing itself. I made a trip to the Apple Store to pick up a Leather MagSafe iPhone 12 case, and it worked beautifully.
If MagSafe allows wireless charging in addition to the magnetic functionality, why isn’t it included? If you’re someone like me who doesn’t have CarPlay for navigation, the Belkin Magsafe Car Vent Mount Pro does a good job holding your phone.
I just wish the product had additional features like wireless charging or a premium build since Belkin was so keen on adding ‘pro’ to its name.
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