Using your phone while driving is a common cause of road accidents these days. It’s not surprising, considering how much we rely on our phones for many things. If you have an older car, you probably even use it for navigation and music, along with a whole host of other things that can make for serious distraction on the road. It doesn’t matter whether you drive an old beater or a brand new high-tech ride, looking at your phone instead of the road won’t lead to good things down the line.
This is why a car phone mount is one of the best car accessories for modern drivers. Putting up one on the windshield or atop the dashboard means you’ll be able to take calls, glance at messages, and even skip music tracks in the playlist without taking your eyes off the road for a single second. Heck, you even autoplay short videos if you need the background entertainment while putting yourself through your daily drag of a commute.
There are different kinds of car phone mounts available, one or more of which may be more suited to your particular needs. Some use suction cups to get a secure hold on windshields and dashboards, while others use clips or some other facility for attaching to the vents on your dashboard. Some mounts use either the car’s CD player or cup holder as their mounting spots, although we skipped including any cupholder-based phone mount, since we haven’t found one that’s easy to use without taking your eyes off the road. There are also supposed to be some that use magnets to attach to any part of the car, but we haven’t found anything we particularly liked during our roundup.
Some of the best car phone mounts will also have extra features that might sway you to use them. There are those that come with articulating arms, for instance, that let you reposition the phone exactly to your liking. A popular one today is integrated wireless charging, as it’s quite the convenience to have your phone charged while it sits on the car mount. Some people may find these extras a game changer, while others may find them to be unnecessary bloats, so make sure to consider how you want to use the mount before making a decision.
These are the best car phone mounts for safe and easy access to your phone inside the car.
Scosche Select Suction Cup Mount
Pros
- Economically-priced
- Strong suction
- Clamp fit every phone we tried
Cons
- Suction too strong, it’s hard to remove
- Can lose suction on the windshield when summer temperatures get too hot (just move it to the dash)
You may be wondering what’s wrong with this car phone mount if they’re selling two-packs of this for $9.99. Fact is, there’s nothing wrong with it. In fact, it’s hands down the best value phone mount you can put in your car. Designed to mount using suction cups, you can put it anywhere on the windshield or the dashboard, where it delivers an impressively strong hold that actually makes it difficult to remove when you want to place it somewhere else. It uses a clamp to secure any smartphone from 2.2 inches to 4 inches wide, so it should support most any modern smartphone available today, while padding on the side arms and back cushion ensures it won’t leave any nicks or scratches. We also like the quick release button at the back of the clamp, which makes it easy to loosen the hold, so you can quickly take your phone out. Overall, a pretty amazing accessory for the price.
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Yosh MagSafe Car Mount (Air Vent)
Pros
- Compact size
- Strong magnetic hold
- Easy to snap your phone on and off
- Comes with stick-on magnets, so you can use non-iPhone smartphones
Cons
- Partially blocks the air vents
- Non-iPhone users need to attach magnets to the back of their phones
Designed to mount on the air vents, this car phone mount gives you a magnetic surface for quickly snapping on any compatible smartphone. No, we don’t mean just iPhone 12 and newer, since it also comes with stick-on magnets that you can put on your Android devices to make them work with the mount. Sure, it doesn’t make the neatest-looking phone, but it could be very handy if you want to use your phone with other magnet-based accessories. We love how compact this car mount is, so it only partly covers a section of the vents, all while putting a very strong hold on any attached phone, so you don’t have to worry about your phone accidentally falling out.
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Belkin Car Vent Mount
Pros
- Solid construction
- Padded grips won’t nick or scratch
- Rotates 180 degrees for landscape and portrait use
- Integrated cable management
Cons
- Partially blocks the air vents
- Might not fit phones with cases more than 3mm thick
Another car phone mount for air vents, this accessory uses a more conventional clamp instead of magnets, making it ideal for non-iPhone users who don’t want to stick ugly magnets at the back of their devices. It can fit phones up to 3.6 inches wide, so it should hold most any modern smartphone in portrait mode. Even better, you’re not restricted to using your phone in portrait, since the mount can be rotated 180 degrees to put your screen in landscape orientation, while coming with a solid build that feels like it will keep its function for many years. We also appreciate the integrated cable management, which lets you tidy up your cables if you decide to plug in your phone while it’s sitting on the clamp.
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iOttie Easy One Touch 6 CD Player Mount
Pros
- It’s nice to find a modern use for that unused CD player
- “One Touch” mechanism is very convenient
- Rotates 180 degrees for landscape and portrait use
- Integrated cable management
Cons
- Only useful in cars with CD players
- Some CD players may be too deep, which will require the use of an included bracket, which isn’t very convenient
If your car has a CD slot in a good position to hold your phone, you can opt for this car phone mount, which uses the disc slot to hold the mount in place. It gets its “One Touch” name from the padded button at the back rest of the cradle, which loosens or tightens the clamp grips with a single touch. Initially, use the release bar to fully open the clamp, put your phone in the cradle, and push the phone in to press the button that automatically tightens the grip. To remove the phone, simply push it back again to press the same button and loosen the hold. It’s a simple but useful design that makes mounting your phone a breeze. Features include self-centering arms for added stability, a rotating design that lets you use it in portrait and landscape, an integrated cord organizer for cable management, and a maximum clamp width of 3.5 inches to accommodate even the biggest modern smartphone.
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iOttie Easy One Touch 6 Dashboard and Windshield
Pros
- Makes it easy to mount your phone anywhere in the car
- Versatile positioning options without having to take off the suction cup
- “One Touch” mechanism is very convenient
- Rotates 180 degrees for landscape and portrait use
- Integrated cable management
Cons
- Will occasionally need to clean the suction cup
- Long arm can get in the way sometimes
Another car phone mount in the “One Touch” line, it features the same padded button on the cradle that makes it easy to loosen and tighten the clamp, allowing you to mount and take off your phone with ease. It also gets the same self-centering cradle arms that ensures your phone is in a level position at all times, as well as the integrated cable management in the back. Instead of a CD player mount, though, this one comes with a reusable suction cup, allowing you to place it anywhere on the windshield or the dashboard. The cradle is held in an extendable arm that can be set anywhere from five to eight inches long and pivoted up to 260 degrees, making it easy to reposition the phone in a variety of ways. The cradle itself can be rotated, too, allowing you to use the phone in either landscape or portrait, making this one very convenient accessory.
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Scosche Magic Mount Pro 2
Pros
- Strong magnetic hold
- Strong suction cup
- Easy to snap your phone on and off
- Tilts and swivels for the best viewing angle
Cons
- Non-iPhone users need to attach magnets to the back of their phones
- Will occasionally need to clean the suction cup
Despite the name, there’s nothing magical about this car phone mount – it’s just a well-designed mount that’s really fun to use in the car. Designed for windshields and dashboards, it uses a suction cup to affix itself to either surface, with a strong hold that ensures your phone will stay in place at all times. It doesn’t have the extendable arm of the iOttie mount above, so you’ll want to mount this close enough that you can easily see the phone, although it does allow you to swivel the arm holding the phone a full 360 degrees and tilt the magnetic cradle, so you can face it at the most comfortable viewing angle. Yes, it’s magnetic, so you’ll either have to be using an iPhone or attaching one of their stick-on magnets to your Android device. If you prefer an extendable arm, by the arm, they offer another model called the Pro 2 Extendo that does just that (note, it’s around $9 more), but we actually prefer the lack of dangling arms in this accessory, which we find to be a lot tidier.
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iOttie Auto Sense
Pros
- Combines wireless charging with clamp mount for universal compatibility
- Uses adjustable feet to properly align the wireless charging function
- Versatile viewing angles
Cons
- If battery runs out, sensor won’t work until after you start the car
- More electronic components that can fail down the line
- May not be compatible with some phones with buttons on the sides that get hit by the clamp
A more advanced version of iOttie’s windshield and dashboard car phone mount, this one comes with a wireless charging cradle, automatically charging your phone the entire time you’re driving. Instead of using a magnetic cradle, it actually uses clamps with feet just like the one above, albeit with the feet able to raise and lower to let you properly align the charger to your phone. This also foregoes the “One Touch” button (there are buttons on the sides to loosen the clamp), since it uses that area to install the Qi charger instead. It also has a sensor that detects when you’re about to put your phone in the clamp (hence, the Auto Sense name) and automatically loosens to let you put your phone in, then tightens automatically after.
Aside from the unique automatic clamp function, it also comes with a telescoping arm that extends the phone’s reach from 6.75 to 11 inches and a pivoting base that lets it turn towards any angle for optimum viewing placement. On the downside, there appears to be more things that can go wrong here, from the batteries and the sensor to the wireless charging and servo motors, but it definitely packs some convenient functions that we absolutely appreciate.
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Scosche MagicMount Pro Charge5
Pros
- Comes with both suction mount and clip for versatile mounting options
- Allows magnetic mounting and wireless charging for both iPhones and Androids
Cons
- Need to attach the plate to your Android phone correctly to make wireless charging work
- Power cable is non-detachable
If you want to mount your phone on the windshield one day, on the dashboard on another, and the vents some other time, this is the car phone mount to get. It supports mounting on all those areas by coming with swappable mounts, so you can attach the suction or the clip, depending on where you would like to position your phone. This is a MagSafe-compatible wireless charging mount, by the way, so it will automatically snap on to compatible iPhones and charge them.
Android users, on the other hand, will have to use a workaround where you attach an included steel plate at the lower half of your phone, allowing it to snap onto the magnet at the lower end of the cradle. You’ll have to test the placement of the plate, by the way, ensuring that the Qi charger lines up with your phone’s wireless charging electronics when the phone snaps in place, so it can be a little tricky. Still, it’s a nice to have a workaround for non-iPhone users.
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