Wireless charging is starting to become one of the most preferred methods of juicing smartphones now that such a large portion of the models out there support Qi. Even Apple eventually decided to catch up with the rest of the world by adding the feature to its phones. Kind of says something right there. That, and they gave up trying to develop their own proprietary version that doesn’t infringe on other patents (that’s what happens when you’re late to the game). You can also charge wirelessly just about anywhere now that there are so many variations of chargers available to you.
Your car is a hot spot as there are some pretty dependable mounts available that allow you to slide your phone in and forget about it until you finish your drive. Great for if you make use of GPS or Android Auto. To take it further, you can find a mount that even adjusts to the size of your phone automatically each time, allowing for multiple users/models who might be in the car. One of these is the iClever 10W/7.5W QI Fast Charging Wireless Car ChargerC (with Automatic Clamp).
Like a lot of today’s chargers, it supports fast charging, which allows your phone to top off pretty quickly, meaning a drive home from work, or out to lunch, can make a significant impact on your battery life. It works with any phone that supports Qi charging and even works with a lot of various styles of cases your phone might be in (which adds distance between the phone and the charger and can sometimes cause you to lose support for certain Qi chargers out there that aren’t strong enough). So far, we haven’t found a phone case here that doesn’t work in the charger.
It plugs into one of your 12v adapters and connects to the bottom of the mount via USB-C, and it comes with its own adapter. That latter part is important since the adapter has two USB slots, one of which is a red 3A input that it needs to be plugged into, as it is required for the Qi charging to work along with the automated arms/clamps.
Which then leads to the selling point of this mount over your normal mounts. The auto-adjusting arms. There is a sensor on the bottom-front of the mount that detects when you come close to it with your phone. When it detects this, the arms will automatically (and quickly) spread out like it is ready to give your phone a nice tight hug. You place your phone into the mount and the arms close/clamp down onto the sides of your phone and you are done.
When you are ready to leave your car or take it out, there is a button on the right side you can press, or directly opposite to it on the left side, is a touch sensor that does the same (which is far easier to use).
This way, anyone in the car can place their phone into the mount and it will adjust to the width of it. The only adjustment you might have to make is if the height (top to bottom) of the phones is significantly different. You may have to manually adjust the bottom arm to raise or lower the phone so that it aligns properly with the charging pad (if it isn’t charging the phone properly).
It comes with two mounts, including a suction cup mount with articulating arm to get the right position with, as well as your typical air vent clamp. Which one you use is completely user preference.
Our Opinions/Conclusion
We wound up enjoying the mount quite a bit. It also gets the attention of others in the car (it’s the simple things in life that can sometimes get everyone excited). It charges quite well and we didn’t find ourselves having to adjust the bottom arm outside of once (for a phone that was quite a bit shorter than the rest). It’s a neat effect as much as it is a bonus and it doesn’t cost much more than your normal mount.
There are a few things to point out. We did find that the motion sensor doesn’t always work. At times we find that it works every time you bring the phone up to it, and then at times, it doesn’t respond at all. This seems to be something simple like the amount of light (sun) pointed directly at it or not, or how close it is to other objects. For example, we found that it didn’t work well at all if it was too close to the back of the steering wheel (hooked to a vent). Just placing your hands on the steering wheel would trigger the mount to open. Sometimes turning the wheel will do it, or it will get confused with it being there and not know the difference between your hand and the wheel and never open at all when you come close to it. So we moved the mount away from the steering wheel (opposite side of the vent) and it worked just fine (outside of a few occasions where it was most likely the sun or something).
The release touch sensor could benefit from being relocated to somewhere easier to get to. That way your finger doesn’t have to go to the side and behind the phone to slide around for the sensor. It would be nice for it to be instantly accessible despite the size of the phone sitting in the mount.
Finally, the air vent clamp needs a bottom/rest support. Some mounts are like this, where all you have is the clamp that slides into the vent. The problem is the mount can swing left or right at times which kind of gets annoying. Some other mounts have a bottom/rest support that the weight of the mount and phone leans down on. It keeps it sturdy and prevents it from swinging. This mount needs that.
Beyond those few points, the price and function of this mount are on par with other models like it on the market. The arms work well and apply just the right amount of pressure on the phone. It will hold is steady, and the arms haven’t squeezed down onto any buttons or anything (at least with the models we have tested it with). We like the quality of materials as well as the performance of the Qi charging. As mentioned, it immediately gets the attention of others in the car and looks nice.
| Buy from Amazon | |
Our Rating | Average Price* $36.99 |
*Average price is based on the time this article was published
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