The Best Car Phone Mount: We Test Phone Holders

How We Chose the Best Car Phone Mounts and Phone Holders

After looking at user reviews and comparing personal experiences, we purchased the best rated examples of different styles of car phone holder to test. We installed and drove with with all of them to pick the best. Some didn’t make the grade, while at the other end, our Editor’s Pick and #2 choice are equally good, but separated by price and intended use.

For more information on the best phone holders and phone mounts for your car, refer to our table of contents.

The Lisen Magnetic Phone Mount is the first vent mount we've ever tested that really works. Almost all other vent mount phone holders have little arms that attempt to hold on to the vanes in the vent with friction, but the Lisen's ratcheting clamp actually locks into place on your vent. It uses a unique arm with an extending hook on the end that reaches out and grabs the back of a vent vane. You then turn a knob to wind it in, securely holding it in place. The angle adjustment has a similar locking ring, so even heavy phones won't droop.

Like every other magnetic phone mount, you have to stick a steel plate onto the back of your phone. If you have a thin case, you can try putting it inside, but magnetic force drops off sharply with distance, so your phone might slip. Even if you do have it on the outside, it will tend to slide down if you experience a lot of vibration, especially with large phones. Lisen includes a pair of mounts, small and large metal plates, and even prep pads for the adhesive, in a very complete kit. Lisen's instructions are also better than the competition (looking at you, Ram Mounts).

We didn't try, but it seems like you might be able to over-tighten the Lisen and break your vent. There really isn't any reason to, however, because as soon as it's snug, you're done.

We generally prefer dash or windshield phone mounts, because they keep phones at eye level, and the Ram X-Grip is the best suction cup mount we've used. The suction cup is very large and the base has a twist lock to suck it down hard onto your windshield. A beefy arm has a single knob to lock it into position on both ends, and the phone clamp has spring-loaded arms that you squeeze apart. The arms themselves don't have enough strength to hold a phone vertically, so the Ram Mounts logo in the center is covered with a sticky plastic to keep it from sliding. The Ram Mounts ecosystem is big enough there are both factory and third party accessories, allowing you to change out the base, arm, or end.

Ours came in a plastic bag with no instructions, which we thought might have been a return. But the rammounts.com site describes the packaging as "Poly Bag," so that looks like all you get. There was a tube of glue included as well, and nowhere in the skimpy instructions we found on the site was it mentioned, but we can guess it's intended for off-road (and dirt road) drivers, and extremes of temperature.

We couldn't pull ours off the windshield without unlocking it, and we have no worries about it coming off under any conditions. Because it's all so large and beefy, the Ram Mount is probably best for trucks and larger SUVs. If it didn't cost so much more than the Lisen and take up a lot of room, it would have been our Editor's Pick.

Charging your phone while driving usually means plugging it in, or in new cars with built-in wireless charging, keeping it flat in a slot somewhere. Adding a wireless charging phone mount is a great solution, especially for long trips.

We've had the previous generation of iOttie wireless car phone charger installed in a car for two years now, and it's been great. It swivels at the base and the holder end, the long neck pivots at both ends, and it telescopes several inches, which really lets you put it where you want it. In our case, we have it mounted on the dash, angled down so the phone doesn't block our line of sight but is still easily visible without looking away from the road. The best part is Qi high-speed wireless charging. Wireless to your phone, at least, because you do have to plug in a 12V adaptor and route a cord up your dash to the base unit.

If the iOttie wireless charger works so well, why don't we rank it higher? It's because we really don't like having to glue a pad to the dash for the suction cup. We've done this before, and there is always residue when you remove the base plate, no matter what. Our has also fallen off a couple of times, once when the temperature was below 0°F, and once when it was around 100°F. Depending on where you stick it, the long arm can vibrate, especially if it's stuck to a padded dash. It's still by far the best of several similar charging phone holders that we've used.

The Nite Ize Steelie is about as good as a squeeze-style vent clamp gets. Rather than just pressure fit, like then Spigen, there's a little locking lever arm which you use to clamp the jaws together onto a vent vane. They have an anti-slip coating on them which does an OK job of holding onto vents, but isn't strong enough for big, heavy, flagship phones.

The ball and socket magnet is very clever. It's strong enough we never worried about the phone falling off, and it lets you mix and match Nite Ize attachments instantly. However, because it's smooth enough to rotate easily, it's also smooth enough to droop. The phone holder also has problems. In order to reach the release levers, you either need to position your phone very high so they stick out the bottom; or pull the whole thing off the magnet every time. That's one more step than any other phone holder we tested.

You could easily change the vent base to Nite Ize's suction cup windshield mount, which would solve the vent clip problem, but it will probably still droop over bumps with a heavy phone.

If you have a smaller phone and want a compact, easily removeable car phone mount, the Spigen Kuel might work for you. It's about as simple a design as you can have. The back has four spring-loaded jaws with an anti-slip coating that go over the vent vanes. The front contains a magnetic pad, and that's all there is. There are no adjustments, so aside from the jaws, it's just one solid piece. Like other magnetic phone holders, you have to stick a steel pad to your phone or slip one inside the case, but as we mentioned with the Lisen, you'll have the best results with the plate directly against the magnet.

We had trouble with the Spigen. It's very low profile, almost flat, so if your vents are recessed (like in the Mazda we tested it on), you'll have trouble arranging the phone so it sticks. With no adjustment, the only thing you can do is swing your vent left and right. For us, between the two it left our phone pointed up at an angle we didn't like. It was usable, but not very convenient.

We also didn't think either the arms or the magnet were strong enough. We cleaned our vents thoroughly with our favorite cleaner so there wouldn't be any dust or grease, and it still slowly slipped off with a Galaxy S10+ attached. The magnets weren't as strong as the Lisen, either.

If you have a smaller phone and want the slimmest and least noticeable phone holder available, not to mention one of the cheapest (it was $14 on eBay at time of publication), the Spigen Kuel will be fine. If you have a flagship phone, or drive on rough roads, we recommend either then Lisen, Ram Mount, or iOttie.

PopSockets were everywhere about four years ago, but we really haven't thought about them since. The basic idea is you stick the PopSocket onto the back of your phone, and when you don't need it, you squish it flat. When you do, you pop it out. Now there's an entire ecosystem of PopSocket accessories, including a big variety of car mounts like the highly-rated PopMount 2. And if you don't like the PopSockets brand, there are plenty of compatible third-party options.

As we aren't using PopSockets, we turned to our forum users for their opinion: "I've been very happy with the basic PopSocket mount," said Onestone on rav4world.com. "It has a double-sided adhesive that holds well but won't leave residue on your dash if you decide to take it off." Msmith on swedespeed said, "That's the same one I have and love it...Doesn't interfere with anything." Dixon12 agreed: "Popsocket made stuff is better quality."

It's one of the few phone mounts that pay any attention to appearance, too, coming in two colors, with a distinctive ring design and very thoughtful cord grips for charging. Reviewers on Amazon gave it a good 85% positive rating, and mentioned it should either be stuck to a flat dash base, or used on the windshield.

What is a Phone Mount or Phone Holder and Why Do I Need One?

What Are the Different Types of Car Phone Mounts and Phone Holders

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