The Belkin MagSafe Car Vent Mount can hook onto any car air vent and hold your iPhone 12. The connection works by using iPhone’s 12 MagSafe magnets and the mount’s magnets.
The best part? Car vents are at the perfect height for viewing your phone’s GPS.
But I had two major concerns before using it:
Question #1: Will the magnets be strong enough to hold my phone when going over bumps?
Surprisingly, even when on bumpy dirt roads, my iPhone didn’t budge from the mount.
Keep in mind, I did most of my testing using the official Apple MagSafe cases (leather and silicone). Apple’s cases are better than using a bare iPhone because they have extra magnets and the case material adds more friction to give it a better stick.
You can use your iPhone 12 without a case and it should stay connected, but I didn’t test it extensively. But unfortunately, the magnet connection won’t be strong enough for those who use a case without MagSafe (a standard third-party case).
Question #2: Will the mount come off the vent when unmounting my phone?
As users of the Apple MagSafe charger know, if you try to casually take your phone off the charger without using force, your charger stays attached to your phone.
However, with the Belkin mount, when unmounting, the mount stays in its position on the vent because the Belkin has the perfect amount of magnet power and the clip stays strongly connected to the vent.
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Room for improvement
Belkin’s mount won’t work for many people because iPhone 12’s are the only phone to have MagSafe, but all future iPhone models should include MagSafe.
The Belkin mount doesn’t charge your phone. Ideally, a cable that plugs into the mount from your car’s power port to charge your phone while it’s mounted would be great.
But there are plenty of reasons why Belkin didn’t go this route:
It’d be hard to pull off technically because MagSafe doesn’t charge as efficiently as a standard Lightning cable, which means it’d require more power.
Not all cars have the same type of power port (USB-A, USB-C, cigarette lighter, etc.). What kind of cable would Belkin ship it with?
A cord dangling from the mount isn’t appealing or great for usability.
The price would increase.
Some cars have wireless charging already, but the placement usually isn’t ideal for those who use their phone as a GPS. It’ll be interesting to see if car manufacturers include a MagSafe mount and charger combo in future models.
