Drive Safe With These Affordable Car Phone Holders (2024)

This simple, unpowered MagSafe mount uses permanent magnets to hold your iPhone in place. It also contains graphene material inside, which passively absorbs heat and helps keep your phone cool on the road.

The standard mount is a car vent clip that comes with a pivoting head to adjust screen angle and rotation, and there's an additional mount that uses basic adhesive pads, plus a flexible “foot” that can be bent to fit the curves of your vehicle’s dashboard.

Key Specs

This circular car phone holder is as simple, cheap, and as unobtrusive as possible — there are no moving parts to fumble around with. Simply clip the holder to an AC vent, stick the magnetic plate to your phone, and it holds to the flat base. As the holder is always flush with its mounting surface, the screen angle is fixed.

No clamps on the body mean you don’t have to worry about device size or orientation. The one drawback with this method is that bulkier cases may render your phone too heavy for the magnet to hold tightly in place. For those who don’t want the vent clip, an adhesive mount version is also available.

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Key Specs

The X-Grip design has four separate rubber-tipped prongs holding the device as securely as possible. These arms rotate along the central head, and the spring tension within allows them to grip each corner tightly.

A suction cup with a twist-lock valve fixes the assembly to a car's windshield or dashboard, and two ball joints allow for full rotation, angle, and position adjustment. It has room for phones from 1.8 to 3.25 inches wide, while the pricier X-Grip Large fits up to 4.5 inches. Considering the price point, you might think this car phone mount offers charging, though unfortunately that isn't the case.

Key Specs

The OtterBox MagSafe charger supplies 15-watt fast charging to your iPhone 12, 13, or 14, plus it features a white illuminated ring for better nighttime visibility. Security comes from a typical vent clip, along with an adjustable ball mount.

This charger is also guaranteed to be compatible with any OtterBox phone case that supports MagSafe, and a limited lifetime warranty is provided with purchase.

A compatible 12-volt adapter also comes in the package, along with a USB-C cable, though it stretches out to 2 meters, which we find excessively long for most vehicles.

Key Specs

This Beam Electronics car mount also uses a vent clip, but employs two mechanical grips instead of magnets, with a plastic groove on the bottom for three points of contact. The screen angle is fixed and tilted slightly upward, with a swivel head allowing for portrait and landscape rotation.

The phone grips use a fairly unique ratcheting system with a quick-release button on the bottom of the device. Push the button and they automatically pop out to maximum width, then simply push them back with your phone placed inside.

The clamp can be set anywhere from 1.9 to 3.7 inches wide, which is enough of a range to accommodate most smartphones and cases.

Key Specs

The Miracase car phone holder uses a sturdy metal hook to attach to a car’s vent at the rear. Up front is a flat magnetic pad, and in the center is a locking ball-joint mechanism allowing for 360-degree rotation and a nice range of angle adjustment.

The hook grasps the vent more firmly than most mounts, and includes a quick release button for easy removal. The magnetic clasp is also demonstrated to be strong enough to hold the weight of a full-sized iPad, so phones and cases should be easily secured.

Key Specs

This windshield dash unit combines two spring-loaded fork-like grips with a large suction cup mount. A button valve at the rear pushes air out of the cup and ensure a good seal. The grips attach along the top and bottom of the phone to fit devices up to eight inches lengthwise. (A particularly large phone, such as the iPhone 12 Pro Max in a particularly thick case, may be slightly too big to fit.)

This model also comes with a swivel arm featuring two points of adjustment, allowing for fine tuning of your phone’s position and angle. The entire assembly can also be inverted for low-profile use on top of the dashboard.

Key Specs

The CupFone has a smart and quirky design that could be a good fit if your car's cup holders are located in the right spot. Setup is a breeze: Just select one of the few sizes of included cup bases, slip it into the cup holder, and slot your phone into the adjustable groove on top. The mount can hold phones and cases up to 3.375 inches wide.

The device sits just above the cupholder, with an optional extension available for extra. While the screen angle is adjustable, the orientation is fixed to a vertical portrait view.

All WeatherTech products are also produced locally in the USA, which does result in this mount being fairly pricey for what you actually get.

Key Specs

This car phone holder features a robust design along with a solid wireless charger. It’s compatible with most popular phone models, such as the iPhone 8 through 14, Samsung Galaxy S6 onward, and Google Pixel 3 onward, and charges through most basic phone cases. (Be aware, however, that especially thick phone cases can interfere with the wireless capabilities.)

What’s more, the phone clamp opens automatically upon starting your vehicle, then grips your phone automatically when you set it in the holder. It mounts to the vehicle via vent clip or dashboard/windshield suction, and the head provides landscape rotation with a fixed screen angle.

Key Specs

Here's an outstanding option for any handle barred vehicle, including motorcycles, motorbikes, ATVs, or bicycles. With its rock-solid grip, it ensures that your phone stays in place no matter how much vibration, bouncing, or wind the road throws your way. It’s also large enough to hold virtually any phone (though extra large cases on bigger phone models can be a tight fit), and auto locks around your entire phone to prevent motion in any direction.

The mount attaches to any handlebar between .7-1.34 inches wide, has a military-grade ball joint that won’t break under anything but the most extreme of circ*mstances, and adjusts to any angle. There’s also a high-speed lock switch that double locks the phone if you hit an especially bumpy surface.

The one downside is that there’s no charger, but if your goal is to install a holder that keeps your phone safe no matter what you’re two-wheeling it through, this does the job nicely.

Key Specs