If you have a standard air conditioner vent (with horizontal slats), plenty of excellent options exist. Vent mounts are often not compatible with circular or small AC vents.

If it is, a mount that charges at the same time as you drive is a really useful feature – after all, if your battery is low, who really wants to be untangling wires when you're about to hit the road? It is illegal to use your mobile phone while driving unless you have hands-free access to the phone - the holder can provide this as long as you're using the device in a hands-free capacity, such as by voice command. Are magnetic car mounts safe for phones? First, you need to choose between the two basic types of car phone mounts: mounts that attach to your air conditioner vent and mounts that attach to your dashboard or windshield. There’s nothing complicated about a car phone holder – you just have to decide which one is right for you. Some are mounted to the windscreen, others to the dashboard, some are designed for air vents, while a small number sit in a cupholder.While there’s no additional support beyond the glossy Magsafe plate, it keeps a tenacious grip on compatible iPhones, and we couldn’t fault it during testing – provided the phone wasn’t in a silicon case. Our test phone’s case weakened the grip somewhat; but ESR sells its own Magsafe cases, which won’t suffer the same problem. This is a smart compact holder and charger that will do your iPhone proud. The best in-car phone holders you can buy in 2023 1. Halfords Magnetic Windscreen Mount: Best windscreen mount A growing number of automatic and MagSafe-compatible options are now available. Automatic mounts use an IR proximity sensor, open when your phone is in range, and automatically adjust their grip to accommodate your phone once it is seated. MagSafe mounts attach to the MagSafe array on newer iPhones. One of the most popular options is a clip that attaches to your air-conditioning vent. These are ideal for lighter smartphones, but the grip might not be firm enough to hold heavier devices and it also obstructs the airflow. Note the word ‘hold’. It’s actually legal to use a phone or sat nav while driving if it’s placed in a dashboard holder or a windscreen mount. This leaves you free to use a voice control system such as Siri or Google Assistant, along with the phone’s built-in sat nav. How to buy the right car phone holder, and how to use it

It will likely come with instructions, that should be easy to follow, with many able to be clipped to an air vent or the dash, or suctioned on to a the windscreen. Are car phone holders legal? If you can't sacrifice the space on your windscreen or dashboard, this expandable model fits into a cup holder. Best of all, it's portable and unobtrusive to your view of the road. ESR’s lightweight mount and charger is a top option for recent iPhones, giving you a Magsafe mount that fits with ease into a vent, then provides secure 18W wireless QI charging via a USB-C cable connected to your car’s USB outlet. The ball joint on the vent mount means it works with both horizontal and vertical vents, while a support arm holds the central square pad steady no matter how rough the road. ESR also sells a dashboard version, if you’d rather have it fitted there. It’s also worth bearing in mind the position of your USB charging port or adaptor, so you can charge your phone while you drive. Do I need wireless charging in my car phone holder?The ball joint on the vent mount gives you a wider range of tilt and swivel, so you can keep the phone in view, and – with a little practice – you can insert and remove it single-handed, with the arms releasing as you pull the phone vertically out of its cradle. It can only hold the phone in portrait mode, but it’s one affordable, sturdy mount. You'd struggle to find anyone who would claim that the magnets in a phone mount could damage your phone.

There’s every chance you’ve been in at least one minicab where part of the windscreen is covered by a wall of phones. That’s not an example to follow. A car phone holder is a must-have. Today’s smartphones can give you easy access to satnav features with up-to-date maps and traffic info, while also allowing you to play music and podcasts as you travel. With voice assistants, you can even use them to make calls or receive and send texts hands-free. Certain phone mounts have clips or arms that hold the phone securely: you simply slide the device into place when you get into the car and remove it when you leave.A final option to explore is a bespoke mount. Swedish firm Brodit make custom mounting units for each model of car to create a permanent mount for your phone. Attaching your phone to the mount