The Best Car Phone Mounts for 2024 (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to put a phone mount on the dash or windshield? ›

Dashboard phone mounts are one of the most common types of car phone holders. They're a perfect middle ground between windshield and cupholder mounts, allowing you to keep your phone in an easy-to-access location that's not too far from your driving sight line.

Your cell phone is completely safe mounted on a magnetic holder or inside a magnetic case. The magnets that are usually used for smartphone mounts are tiny and hidden from view, hardly the type of industrial magnet that can do damage.

Will a CD Slot Mount Do Damage? Nope! While it's a reasonable assumption to think something mounted in your CD player slot could do some damage to your audio system, they're perfectly safe.

Windshield Mount

Windshields are undoubtedly the highly favored place to put the phone mount in the car. You can use an adhesive or a suction cup to mount your handset onto the windshield and fix the device.

Firstly, the magnetic field can blur your camera. In addition, your smartphone's compass may become out of alignment when you use a certain magnetic mount. This is caused by the presence of too large magnets that cause the compass to be out of alignment.

A popular choice among drivers, the windshield mount provides a clear view of your phone's screen, making it an ideal position for navigation purposes. Most windshield mounts come with a strong suction cup that adheres firmly to the glass.

Cupholder mounts are super easy to use, but you need a vehicle with cupholders near the windshield—or an extender, such as on the WeatherTech. Vent mounts are great, but the phone blocks airflow from the vent it's mounted to.

The Bottom Line

Most magnetic phone mounts on the market use small magnets that won't really damage your phone's circuits or functionality.

If you have your phone mounted directly in front of your vent, prolonged heat will be blowing straight into the back of your phone. Not really the best thing for electronics over the long-term. If you have long, cold winters and you drive often, this could be a genuine concern.

Do magnetic phone holders damage credit cards? ›

Luckily EMV chips aren't affected by magnets. However, scratches or prolonged exposure to water can cause damage or make them stop working altogether.

If such a disc is left in an environment that allows direct sunlight and extreme heat buildup (e.g., on the dashboard of a car in summertime, or next to a heater by a window), the organic dye or phase-changing film that holds the data will degrade quickly, causing the disc to become unreadable.

Most definitely. CD quality sound is full 44.1kHz uncompressed digital hi-res audio.

The organic dye used in the data layer of R discs degrades naturally but slowly over time. High temperatures and humidity will accelerate the process. Prolonged exposure to UV light can degrade the dye properties and eventually make the data unreadable.

All of the dashboard and windshield car phone mounts we tested had impressively strong suction cups. However, they won't stick well if the mounting surface is dirty or porous.

Using a dashboard phone mount is not only legal in most places when installed properly, but it's also highly recommended for safety reasons. A phone mount keeps your phone within easy reach and view, allowing you to make sure you're staying connected without having to take your eyes off the road.

Because of their durability, many examples of these phones are still in working order today. The Bag Phones are a derivative of the Motorola Tough Talker series of transportable phones, which in turn descended from the DynaTAC car phones introduced in 1984.