This summer聽I developed a minor聽obsession with phone mounts for my car. I鈥檓 building聽my 2003 Toyota Sequoia into an overlanding rig聽and wanted something that would hold my phone securely and display my screen while I navigated bumpy聽dirt roads.
Thinking I needed something beefy, I immediately bought an 聽with a phone holder and long metal arm that attached to the passenger-seat rail. It took hours to affix鈥攁nd then it came loose within a week. Frustrated, I contacted a buddy who runs an overlanding shop and asked if he could drill a phone mount into my dashboard to eliminate any jiggling.聽He said yes, but suggested that instead of spending over $100 for labor and putting holes into my car, I should head to Home Depot and buy a tiny Scosche mount instead.聽
I was surprised that someone whose truck has $80,000 worth of upgrades was running a $12 phone mount. But I trust his advice,聽so I went next door, found the , slapped it聽on my dash,聽and never looked back.聽My phone immediately locked in place and didn鈥檛 budge.聽
The following week, my partner and I spent two days driving technical backcountry roads marked with washboards, rock gardens, and giant ruts. While everything else in the truck rattled聽(including my Ram mount), my phone rested聽on the dash totally unfazed.
The fact that聽MagicMount is small聽is what makes it work so well. More specifically, the dash-mount arm is so stubby that it can鈥檛 jiggle around. Other dash and windshield mounts often use longer (four- or five-inch) arms that protrude from a base.聽I鈥檝e never been able to get those arms connected tightly enough to the base to cut out any motion.聽
To set up the MagicMount, you first attach its聽plastic base to your dash with a peel-back adhesive. On top of the base is a small聽plastic swivel plate with a magnet. Once the base is attached, you adjust the swivel plate to face the direction聽you want, then you聽mount a second, superthin magnet to the back of your phone or phone case. You can also slip the magnet between your phone and phone case and forgo an adhesive. The magnet on your phone then attaches to the magnetic swivel plate, and you鈥檙e done.
I was worried the adhesive would start to wear out over time, but that hasn鈥檛 been the case. After months of hard testing, the base is still solid, and my phone hasn鈥檛 slipped once. I鈥檓 using an聽iPhone 11 Pro, but based on the rigidity of the tension on the swivel,聽I have no doubt that people with larger phones鈥攍ike the 11 Pro Max鈥攚on鈥檛 see any slips聽either.
The next accessories I plan to buy聽are the ($20)聽and the ($30), the latter of which I鈥檒l use to hold an iPad on the back of the passenger seat聽for the kids so they can watch a movie on longer聽road trips.