Has anyone come across a really good phone holder?

 

I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 (not the mini) in a very rugged and chunky case that I need to mount either on the dashboard or the windscreen. The phone itself is quite heavy and I need something that is capable of taking the phone and not allowing it to bounce all over the place like some holders do.

 

I used to have a BlackBerry 9320, small and light and that used to make the windscreen mounted holder bounce a lot especially over the rough roads that we seem to have in Essex, all those potholes etc. I did see one that looked like a very good one, it had sticky pad on the base to stick to the top of the dashboard but because the dashboard has a textured finished, it didn't stick.

 

I don't want to clip anything into the vents either as they always tend to mark and damage the vents, but also block off the air flow so reducing the cooling effect in the summer.

 

I welcome your thoughts.

I've got the cheapest of cheap phone holders http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=271512059509&alt=web & it does the job perfectly for my S3 in a reasonably chunky case.

Pic from another thread...

It does block a bit of airflow from the vent but no biggie for me.

i have had one similar to that and it badly scratched the vanes on the vent and as the car is leased, they will pick on things like this at the end of the lease and it costs money to put right.

It hooks on to the back (out of sight) bit of a single vent fin. If there are any scratches, they're certainly not visible. I've had this one on a couple of months so far.

Anyhooo... May help someone else who stumbles across this thread!

Have you looked at the Brodit device specific mounts? I did but they were ridiculously expensive & OTT for my simple (one size fits all) requirements.

The one I had never scratched the fin until I came to remove it at the end of the lease. Surely with the leg that clips into the fin being sprung as well, doesn't the holder push backwards into the vent if you press the phone at the top? 

Brodit. Just get one. They are expensive, but they fit very well, are very minimalistic (the universal one on the picture above is just massive, sorry), and they hold the phone secure.

Another vote for Brodit. Do your homework as they can be had on Ebay a few pounds cheaper than the UK distributor DSL developments although when it arrives it's from them anyway!!!

I've got a few of these around the place. a little pricey looking for what they are, but are well well worth it. they just work, they are easy to get the phone into (and even in a case if you want, and are clean enough looking when there isnt a phone in it, and are quite sturdy, and dont mark the vents.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kenu-Airframe-Portable-Car-Mount-Black-Gray/dp/B00D901B4W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404425346&sr=8-1&keywords=airframe+kenu

 

t.

I bought my friend a few phone holders for her car.

One made for the Samsung S3,

One Clingo 

 

and one generic clip style holder 

 

The Clingo won out in that it's stuck on (hardly any pressure is needed to apply the phone securely to the adhesive which leaves no residue on the phone, in fact the adhesive is so strong that we kept half of the pad covered) to a pad that can be turned to turn the phone from landscape to portrait viewing. You can get the Clingo from ebay for as little as £5. They can be attached by suction to the glass or smooth surface but also come with a flat disk with a strong adhesive which you'd then attach the suction mount to. 

I always buy the Brodit range of mount and holder; certainly on the last few cars.

Not cheap - but they work and are generally well designed. 

So far the best option for me seems to be the device that Simbo has shown me, thanks for the great series of photos Simbo, a great help. The clue was in the original post, the phone is in a rugged case and the Brodit holders are specifically designed for standard phones, which is what I would prefer to be honest but as the phone is a company one and they insist that the phone has to stay in the case for protection as any damage to phone whilst not in the case is down to me to repair / replace the phone!

 

The following link will show the case that I need to accommodate in the holder and this case measures 148mm x 88mm x 20mm so as you see, it is very rugged and chunky and does not lend itself to standard type of phone holders.

 

So unless there is someone out there who has a better solution to the one that Simbo has offered, then reluctantly I shall have to have one that clips into an air vent, something I did not want to do.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/380760127224?var=650164086158&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Edited 4 July, 201411 yr by Graham Butcher

Asda do a universal one for £6 iirc, it's held my Xperia Z perfectly on the screen for the last year.

I still bought Brodit but the adjustable version; which has the side sliders to adjust to the phone plus case.

 

Works for me - but as i'm unfamiliar with your phone, chunky case, etc i cant judge.

 

Regardless - glad it looks like you have a possible solution! 

Well at least I have ordered one of those that fit into the vent, not entirely happy, but I need a quick solution to ensure a good reception. I have not given up on finding a better solution so please keep those ideas and if possible, photos coming as I sure that they will be of interest to other members as well. Just a shame that the phone makers couldn't agree on a common format, at least as far as size and power connectors are concerned.

Go for a Brodit, they are the best. Here is my setup for my Bury kit:

 

Passenger seat or center console if I have a passenger.

Free with no fitting either. 

Hopefully Skoda will include the multimedia holder in the next model. I got one from an Octavia and stuck it in the centre console and it does the job.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Correct me if I'm wrong, but with all cases where the phone is sitting low down, like in the media holder, centre console then you really need the phone "Romete Sim Access" mode, or premium mode so the car navigation system then becomes "The Phone" so to speak and when it is in hands-free mode, the navigation system does not become the phone and so the phone then really needs to as high up in the car as is possible because the phone is in control and relies on its own internal aerial for receiving and transmitting the signal and thus lower down i the car, the worse the reception is?

You might be right there but I never have any issues with reception apart from poor network signals but that's nothing to do with the car.  The iPhone just connects via Bluetooth and it operates through the steering wheel/nav system which is all I want.  Having said that I try to limit my use of the phone in the car as even on hands free as it can be a distraction.

My reasoning behind this is that with it in Remote Sim Mode, if your on the phone and you have reached your destination, the phone will not transfer automatically from the navigation system to the phone so that you can't exit the car and continue the call as a handheld, but with the phone in hands-free mode it does this automatically but the phone signal can be weaker. I used to have a screen mounted holder with the BB and that would hold a call whereas my National Sales Manager will not have any phone holder in his car and pops his phone into the cup holder on the transmission tunnel. He always has loads of dropped calls, I didn't.

 

I think his car is working like a Faraday cage and is blocking signals unless he is in a very strong strength area, whereas mine has a clear view of the sky and the horizon because it is surrounded by glass, but his is effectively at the bottom of a metal bucket and its view of the sky / horizon is limited.

 

If the phone is in Remote Sim Mode then the navigation system uses the shark fin on the cars roof as the aerial which has no "cage" effect but then has operational restrictions as mentioned above. 

I put my galaxy 3 in the cup holder between the gearstick and the handbrake when charging or above the 12v socket when not doing so

I lay my iphone on the drinks holder cover and it stays put all the time. As the car has BT I don't see the point in fitting a holder for the phone as I never look at the phone itself just the touchscreen and maxidot.

Cheers

Dave.

I lay my iphone on the drinks holder cover and it stays put all the time. As the car has BT I don't see the point in fitting a holder for the phone as I never look at the phone itself just the touchscreen and maxidot.

Cheers

Dave.

What about if you have to brake heavily etc, in the case of an accident, the phone is going to become a missile and will almost certainly sustain damage even if you or the car don't. If you have passengers in the car and the phone accidentally gets knocked off into your foot-well, it then becomes a major safety hazard, especially if it slides under the foot pedals and jams them. Isn't it a law that the phone should be retained in a holder anyway?

 

I too, never look at the phone, just use the maxi-dot, touchscreen or the controls on the steering wheel. The reason why I'm asking about holders is A) for safety reasons and to elevate the phone so that the car body itself does not restrict its usefulness by blocking out all but the very strongest of signals.

My blackberry bold used to live in the ashtray cubby hole, and I could leave it on charge and slide the tray shut over the top of it. Was a perfect fit, until the thing died on me. Now my replacement iphone sits in the guinness holder, next to the hand brake. Cover slides over, but not when on charge.

My blackberry bold used to live in the ashtray cubby hole, and I could leave it on charge and slide the tray shut over the top of it. Was a perfect fit, until the thing died on me. Now my replacement iphone sits in the guinness holder, next to the hand brake. Cover slides over, but not when on charge.

My Manager does that with his Blackberry Bold and when he calls me it is reminiscent of listening to shortwave radio with whistles and loads of general background noise and if he places the phone on the dashboard, the sound quality improves dramatically.

 

I can honestly say that out of the various people who call me on a daily basis, his calls are always of low quality audio and dropped calls, hence my post regarding getting the phone as high as possible in the car.

Here's an update on the phone holders to date, after much thought I decided to take the plunge and try out the one that Simbo posted about and purchased one from the same seller that he used on eBay and it arrived today, sadly despite it being a generic type with jaws that open wide to grip the phone, they don't open wide enough and the depth of the side grips is not deep enough to hold the phone either although it does work well if the phone is taken out of its protection case which is not an option as it is so fiddly to extract and then pop back in again.

 

A trip down to our local Home Bargains and I spotted a clamp type of phone holder very similar the one shown in the photo by Svend, reasonably priced at £2.99 so I thought what the ????, it must be worth a go at that price. So I purchased it has a nice rotary action to clamp it to the windscreen and although is a bit fiddly to get the phone in and out of it, it does take the phone and the case, just.   But it does bounce a bit over rough roads as the case itself is quite heavy, I suspect that the phone without the case would be nice and secure with less bounce, but so would the first holder.

 

I'll post a few pictures of the holder itself if anyone else is interested.

 

I'm beginning to think that it might be best just to let the phone take a message whilst driving and save myself the bother and also it should be safer that way as I don't risk being distracted by the phone. Any thoughts on that, the pros and cons having a hands free kit. I see that companies can be fined if they provide a hands free kit in a car and expect you to make / receive phone calls while driving?

Brodit,Brodit,Brodit!!!!!!!