I’ve tried a few phone holders. This one clamps tight to the vent, without blocking it, and is solid. The phone does not move when driving. And when the phone is not in the holder, you don’t see the holder, unlike most phone holders that are about as aesthetically pleasing as scaffolding. The only thing that could be more minimal would be the magnet which attaches to the vent, but this one brings the phone a few inches closer to the driver, closer that the radio. And there are no adjutments needed to fit the size of your phone, it automatically adjusts when you put the phone in.
My worry with these type of phone holders: the vents are designed to direct air flow, not hold ~½lb of weight under constant strain. The little plastic louvers IME can be pretty fragile.
I put my phone in the cup holder which isn’t ideal. I’d like to find a decent holder but worry about breaking bits that weren’t designed to hold a phone.
There’s no right choice for everyone. For the model in the OP, how can you use a vent mount without blocking the vent? Even if a phone only covers half the vent, the mount hurts the vent’s adjustability, making it hard to aim at your face.
It doesn’t look like the holder will work in landscape mode.
After trying a dozen holders, I ended up with magnets on plastic ball joints. My wife prefers the simplicity of PopSockets which also work as a table easel — and she put a metal disk on the popper, so it will work with my magnetic holders.
PopSockets wouldn’t work with my dashboard layout, and the ball joints let me point the screen at my passenger, in case we want to talk about route options.
I don’t like vent mounts either, because of blocking the air flow and the flimsiness of the vent vanes in many cars. Actually I prefer the phone on the left side of the steering wheel, away from the center console and mounted high enough that I don’t have to look down away from the road to see it. I’ve been very happy with this one, which I have mounted to a non-movable window pane on the left. If your car doesn’t have a non-movable part of the window, it claims to be able to mount to most plastic surfaces in the car too. The position and angle of the phone is adjustable over a wide range, and the phone very easily snaps in and out of the mount, which automatically adjusts to the size of the phone.
That’s the kind that actually works in my car. I tried the air louver one and it died almost right away, leaving the louvers unharmed, thank goodness. I tried a sticky dash pad but then I couldn’t see the map on the screen when I needed it; same for the drinks holder. But I’ve had the CD player slot one for several years now. It’s stable.
I use a Lamicall cell phone holder that clips in the vent. It does not obstruct the vent much unless there’s a phone mounted as it’s only about 3/4" tall. It rotates to allow landscape view. The clips themselves each rotate to allow you to choose thicker or thinner vents.
Even with a phone mounted, the vents in my CR-V and RAV4 are about 50% unobstructed. I position the phone just to the right of the steering wheel. One disadvantage is that the phone gets really, really cold when the AC is one.
I tried the AINOPE holder and found it to be a poor option (see advantages of the Lamicall above). I do not own stock in Lamicall.
I love the vent-mounted holders. Mine doesn’t have a “bottom”, it’s just tight enough to hold the phone with friction, which means you can use it horizontal if you want.
But each car is a little different. I’ve used my travel vent-mounted holder in a lot of rental cars, but I did get a CD-mounted holder for the accord. That’s a good choice if you have a CD player you never want to use.
I used to use a vent-mounted magnetic holder, which I liked, except for my phone getting very cold on hot days.
Now I have a car that has Android Auto as well as its own navigation system, and a phone that has Qi charging, so it can’t have a metal disc on the back. So now I either hook my phone up to Android Auto via cable and chuck the phone in the armrest compartment or cupholder, or I just put my phone on a Qi charging pad under the dash, if I’m not using the phone for anything. Phone controls are on the steering wheel and the infotainment system via Bluetooth if I need to make or receive a call – which I generally try to avoid while driving.
My phone is my GPS device when i drive, so i need it mounted somewhere easy to glance at.
I expect my next car to have Android auto, and then the phone can go in the center console, or probably stay in my pocket for short trips. But for now i need a mount.
I’ll look, but i bought it years ago, so no promises.
I’ve never liked vent-based holders because they position the phone where you can’t really SEE the damn thing while driving - which is sort of the purpose.
I use a suction-cup mount, attached to a “bean bag”-type holder that sits on top of the dashboard. Something like this:
Any suction cup mount will attach to it, and it was surprisingly stable (I had another version, that did not do as well), though I don’t think it would have done well in a high-speed police chase!
I need to dig ours up - since we got a car 2 years ago with built-in GPS etc, I haven’t set up the phone mount, but there have been times where the car’s GPS has failed, with sometimes hilarious results (hint: when the car says you are in Lake George - and it means the lake itself versus the town, you might need to double check where it’s sending you).
Cup holder, though it seldom leaves my pocket. I usually know where I’m going but, if using it for navigation, I just need to hear the directions or take a quick glance.
I got a PanaVise custom mounting plate which uses existing bolts to firmly attach to the dashboard. That then provides holes to attach any AMPS conforming phone mount. AMPS phone mounts are available from PanaVise, Ram Mount, or countless other places on Amazon.
I think the mounting plate was about $30, and then the AMPS mount parts another $15-20. Because Chevrolet’s dashboard construction paradigm is “push it into place with some clips, and hope it doesn’t start rattling until after the warranty expires” it was very easy to pull off the dash facia, and put the mounting plate on the correct bolts.
Now there is a very secure mounting place for a phone, that is never going to fall off when hitting a bump, but didn’t require any drilling, gluing, and doesn’t occupy a cupholder.