I wouldn't use anything magnetic with a Smartphone if you are planning on using any navigation features etc as it will wreak havock with the compass and other sensors.

For my Galaxy S2 I got the genuine mount which is very good, although stiff to get the phone out. I had read various reviews about car mounts for it and quite a few indicated that the aftermarket chargers were not always sufficient to charge the phone if it was running navigation or other apps. The OEM mount and charger work really well and there is a hole in the mount for the camera so you can use it as a dash cam. I don't bother with jacking in to the aux port as the bluetooth works great.

Been using the 'Clingo universal car phone mount'. Its a very sticky gel pad, only downside its a little too stick for my Nokia. So sticky it pulls the battery cover off

Will get a picture of it in situ tomorrow.

http://www.clingo.com/images/Products/400/30272_ClingoCarMount_Double.jpg

I wouldn't use anything magnetic with a Smartphone if you are planning on using any navigation features etc as it will wreak havock with the compass and other sensors.

AFAIK the "compass" in a phone is the gps sensor plus an accelerometer. There's no magnetic compass in there. Either way though, a magnet could screw up your sd card.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

AFAIK the "compass" in a phone is the gps sensor plus an accelerometer. There's no magnetic compass in there. Either way though, a magnet could screw up your sd card.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

No the compass is separate from the GPS reciever and most smartphones have them -GPS has no way of determining which direction you are facing, but most software that uses GPS assumes that you always face the direction of travel (ie that you're not going sideways or backwards) and responds appropriately to tell you which direction you are facing. Programs like TomTom will also make other assumptions/corrections like always showing you as on a road even if you're not (because it's for car navigation -why wouldn't you be on the road) I sometimes used to play with TomTom on one of my old Windows phones while on the intercity trains and watching it jumping around from small side road to small side road as the train would pass through towns as it didn't want to accept that we were on the train track doing 125mph.

I'm intrigued, how / what does the compass in a phone look like, and is it magnetic like a conventional one?

I would have though there would have been warnings about keeping it away from magnetic fields, and doesn't the blackberry have a magnetic strip in the case to lock the screen?

I cannot speak for Blackberry -I have never owned one and don't know what sensors they do or do not have.

Here's a link to the Andoid Developers Guide with an overview of the sensors -obviously not all devices will have all the sensors that Android supports: The geomagnetic sensor or magnetometer inside a phone is going to be a tiny fairly anonymous looking component on a circuit board.

Edited 3 February, 201313 yr by greenstripe

As promised...

Has any of you tried this: http://www.ebay.it/itm/CAR-DASHBOARD-PHONE-HOLDER-MOUNT-FOR-APPLE-IPHONE-4-4S-3G-3GS-5-MOUNT-CRADLE-GPS-/370757038879?_trksid=m8&_trkparms=algo%3DMW%26its%3DC%26itu%3DUCC%26otn%3D3%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D8283730007467236657&_qi=RTM1421214

I understand it relies on "stickiness" to hold both to the dashboard and to the phone.