Customer Reviews

Kensington Car Mount for iPod; iPhone 1G, 3G; and MP3 Players (Black)

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

--Kensington Car Mount for iPod/phones --

PROS: I've tried several similar products, and the Kensington has the best of all the button features to "open" the clamps around your device--very James-Bondish the way the holder slowly opens to allow your device out. The overall quality of the Kensington is excellent--it feels like a well-made holder.

CONS: The greatest asset of the holder--its long length--is also its biggest WEAKNESS! Even with good construction and a firm grip on my phone, the arm is just too long to stay completely rigid during travel--the whole thing vibrates and slightly shakes while you're driving. If you're looking to your phone or GPS for directions, you'd be hard pressed to read your device easily. Not that it shakes violently, but it vibrated and jittered enough to make my device, well, permanently set on "vibrate" (hyuk hyuk). The long arm is also a bit awkward in a smaller car--the size of the thing and its conspicuousness on the dash seems a bit, how would you say, "undercover police car"-ish.

BOTTOM LINE: even with its solid quality and conceptually good set up, I returned the Kensington--the road vibrations from its long arm made my device too jittery to enjoy.

There are so many of these on the market that are very cheaply made but this one from Kensington is so well made and sturdy! I love the features:
* you can move the bottom holders to avoid charger cables,
* you can get your devices out extremely easily! Just pinch the device and your finger naturally falls on the back of the holder's release button
* you can TURN the thing sideways once you mount your iPhone or iPod Touch and see movie (don't do this while driving)
* you can EASILY move the suction cup from place to place (like on the side window and use your phones speaker function when you don't own an earpiece)

Unlike other iPhone specific windshield mounts, this Kensington product allows you to place your iPhone in it regardless of what type of case you are using. The suction cup stays on like a champ in all sorts of temperature extremes. And the grip on the phone is very secure, yet easy to release with a single button click.

Okay, I had read all the reviews, heard the raves and the rants. Went to an Apple Store and bought one of these puppies. Thought the rants about the vibrations were due to folks probably extending these to full length and sticking them to a 1979 Ford Pinto cracked windshield! I have a brand new Expedition that GLIDES on air. And this SOB vibrated it's ass off! I tucked it into a very tight "S" configuration and it did not matter! Seems like Kensington invested 99% of the money in the "Herculean" extension bar and spent a penny on the rest of the setup! What promise - I couldn't believe this thing sucked as bad as it did. There is so much promise with some of the materials in this product, and some &^%*^ bean counter probably said skimp on the rest of it!!! I am ticked off that I got suckered into this. The arm is SOLID as granite! The suction cup is VERY good with the exception of the cheesy suction "lever" (use Garmin's lever if it's not patented). And the 360 degree base rotation is nice, but is "cheap" You know, Kensington, I would gladly pay $50 - $75 for a GREAT iPhone mount that uses some of the materials and ideas of this mount, but not with this lame attempt! I give the PROMISE 5 stars, but the actual execution only gets 2 stars. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT UNTIL IT IS REFINED!!!!!! Don't make me post a video of this damn thing - people will see really how bad it is - 06 August 2009.

I've been using the Kensington car mount for about a week and it is flawless. I know others have complained that the arm shakes - hey, what would you expect an extension arm to do? We live in a flat area, so it is fine and besides, I don't spend all my time looking at my phone while driving, and that is why I can write this review today. There is a 3/8ths of an inch thick cushion holding your device in place which makes it easy for your phone or pod to be quickly released. I'm sure the mount can be used for many other devices, not just an iphone or pod. It seems to open up enough to hold a razzleberry phone.
Pros:
A) highly adjustable ARM which can be bent so that your phone faces you while the suction mount is out of view. Arm is long enough so that you can set your phone exactly where you want it to be.
B) Phone comes out easily by turning the phone to its side and replaced by using the same method.
C) Turns to side for widescreen view - clicks in place and easily resets to the upright position.
D) Suctions well to a "Clean Windshield"
Cons:
Well, if i need to come up with one, I would ask for the base which supports the phone from the bottom was about 1/4 to 3/8 longer. It's not all that important.

I've been using the mount for about a month now, and overall I am pleased with it. I purchased the mount because I wanted to use my iPhone for music and other things in the car, but I had it mounted on the vents right next to the stereo and received way too much interference. The Kensington mount is very easy to place and remove my iPhone, I love the quick release button. The mount holds my iPhone just fine, and I'm never worried about it falling out, but the arm was very shaky. I ended up jimmy-rigging it using a brace to hold the flexible arm against my dashboard. This fixed the shakiness and works great, but has it's drawbacks in that it makes removing the mount a little impractical. Overall, the Kensington mount turned out to be just what I was looking for, (with a little modification.)

Excellent product. Very practical. Firmly sticks to the windshield and lets you have your i pod or cellphone at hand. You can also manipulate the arm so that you can have it where you want and where it don't interfere with your vision of the road. It's also very easy to mount and unmount... just in a few seconds. I'm very pleased with this product.

I bought this so I could travel more safely while using my iPhone.

My car does NOT have a center console where I could set my phone while driving, so I would lay the phone on my passenger seat (if no one was sitting in it), or I would ask my passenger to hold it. That got old pretty quickly.

I found this through searching here on Amazon.
I read the product features, I read the user reviews. I bought it.

I LOVE this holder!

I have it positioned on the left side of my windshield, closest to the side rear-view mirror (just above my inspection sticker) attached to the windshield. That way it is close at hand, but NOT in my line of site.

The suction cup keeps it there - without fail! I can even leave it there when I place my full-windshield sunshield into position.

The bottom of the actual holder has movable "legs" (that can rotate in or out as needed) that hold the phone. This holder comes off of the arm just by lifting it up while you hold the arm in place.

The side "arms" of the holder open easily, yet hold securely, even with the bulk of my "Speck" silicone case.

I just loop my (2) cords onto the support arm after removing the holder - which is almost like a bonus to me, as I had nowhere to store the power cord and/or input cord (I have a cassette player in the car, so I still use the cassette adapter to listen to my iPod thru the car's stereo).

Overall this was WELL worth the money I paid for it. Quite simply, I am a safer more organized driver due to using this holder. Thanks Kensington!

[UPDATE: The unit that holds the phone stopped working. I came to the conclusion that it stopped working because I would leave it in my car - no matter what temperature it was in the car. I bought a replacement, and now I just pop the holder off with my phone when I leave my car. The arm just stays in the car. It seems to be working much better than my original one.]

I have had my iPhone 3GS for half a year and recently purchased a GPS app for it (The MotionX GPS Drive is the best). I wanted to mount the iPhone in my car so I could see the map and also so that the phone would be in a great position to receive the GPS signals. I researched several mounts and noticed that the ones which had good ratings didn't support iPhones which are in a protective case. This particular mount did support cases and had some great reviews. I purchased the mount and it arrived in a couple of days. I had to return the first one because one of the little arms at the bottom of the holder had broken off during transit or during the packaging. Amazon sent a replacement and I now have the car mount in my car. I love it also because I can easily switch between functions on the iPhone (when safe to do so).

Bottom Line: If you have a phone (iPhone or others) I would strongly suggest getting this case. It is VERY easy to mount or remove it from the window. The phone is held firmly in place yet it is easy to put it into the holder and remove it. The mount holds securely to the window. I have not had any issues with rattling or the suction failing. Overall an excellent product!

I can't think of anything to complain about this, it'll hold your ipod, iphone with or without cases. Honestly it will probably hold a vast array of media devices with different form factors than apples ones. It's great, it sticks, it shakes a little over bumps (on irish roads) but we should all have bigger worries than that to deal with. Cheap and functional... :)