Best car cell phone holder for iphone 12 pro max

We’ve driven for hundreds of hours with more than 50 phone mounts in multiple cars—including 20 hours as a Lyft driver, picking up and dropping off passengers on unfamiliar roads—and we’re sure the iOttie iTap Magnetic 2 has the best combination of safety, convenience, and stability for holding your phone on the road.

We think magnetic phone mounts are generally the most convenient and easiest-to-use options for holding your phone in a car, and in our testing, the iOttie iTap Magnetic 2 line delivered the best overall experience. It’s equally sturdy in dash/windshield-, vent-, or CD slot–mounted versions, and it’s easy to set up and take with you from car to car, making it an easy fit for lots of situations. In our tests, the magnets in all three versions were strong, supporting most of our phones either vertically or horizontally over even the roughest terrain. Only the large 6.5-inch iPhone XS Max gave them some trouble when held horizontally, although the mounts were rock solid with a 6-inch Pixel 2 XL.

Also great

If you want to position your phone on a vertical dash surface or in a small area where the iOttie iTap Magnetic 2 models won’t work, the Scosche MagicMount Dash may be a better option. It attaches with a small adhesive pad that fits into small nooks and crannies of the dash more easily than a suction cup. And it can tilt a full 90 degrees back or to the sides, which makes it ideal for sloping or vertical surfaces. The MagicMount Dash’s magnetic attachment performed the best in our testing, holding even a large iPhone XS Max securely everywhere we drove. But, while this Scosche stuck firmly to smoother surfaces, it didn’t work as well on textured ones. The adhesive pad is also difficult to remove, and you need a new one to attach the mount in a new position or vehicle.

Also great

Kenu Airframe Pro

The best vent-mounted tension-arm model

You don’t have to put a metal plate on your phone with a tension-arm model, but it’s not as easy to put the phone in or take it off. Kenu’s is the best of this style, with the strongest grip and a design you can operate one-handed.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $27.

It’s not quite as easy to attach and remove a phone with a tension-arm mount as it is with magnetic ones, but they don’t require you to attach a metal plate to your phone or case. If this works better for you, we recommend the vent-mounted Kenu Airframe Pro and dash-mounted or windshield-mounted Airbase Pro. In our testing, these sturdy mounts gripped the phones firmly by the sides and held them steady over every terrain we drove over, although not quite as firmly as the iOttie or the Scosche. With both, it’s easy to open the mount and attach or remove your phone with just one hand.

Also great

Our other picks are great for holding your phone, but still require you to plug in charge cable. To wirelessly charge your Qi-compatible phone in a car while also keeping it in a place that’s safer and more convenient than, say, a cupholder, get the iOttie Easy One Touch Wireless 2. (It’s available in a dash/windshield mount or a vent/CD-slot mount.) The latest iOttie models offer the best combination of fast charging, serious stability, and easy adjustability.

The research

• Why you should trust us
• Who should get this
• How we picked
• How we tested
• Our pick: iOttie iTap Magnetic 2
• Flaws but not dealbreakers
• Also great: Scosche MagicMount Dash
• Also great: Kenu Airframe Pro and Airbase Pro
• What to look forward to
• The competition

Why you should trust us

Nick Guy, who wrote an earlier version of this guide, is a former Wirecutter staffer who has researched and tested hundreds of car mounts. He’s also written guides to desktop Qi chargers, multiport USB wall chargers, USB car chargers, and more. Prior to joining Wirecutter, Nick spent three years as the accessories editor at iLounge, where he reviewed more than 1,000 products, including early wireless-charging devices.

Who should get this

Every car should have a safe way to hold a phone. Some advocates (like the National Transportation Safety Board and Governors Highway Safety Association) say you should not use a phone while driving at all. But in reality, for many drivers, it’s the source for navigation, information, messages, music, and (of course) phone calls. However, if you hold the phone in your hand as you drive—or look down at it in a cupholder or center-console bin—it can also be a major distraction and safety risk. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says that multiple studies “have consistently linked texting or otherwise manipulating a phone to increased (crash) risk.”

A good smartphone mount can greatly reduce those risks by holding your phone steady where you can easily see the screen and access on-screen buttons without blocking your view or forcing you to take your eyes off the road for too long. With the phone at dash level, using it becomes more like operating a car radio, which, according to a 2013 report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (PDF), “has little effect on driving performance or crash risk.” We’d hedge that a bit—phone use while driving is still a distraction—but clearly, placement matters, and a good mount makes the inevitable phone use less dangerous.

How we picked

Any good car phone mount needs do a few things well, including:

• attaching securely to your car so it won’t fall off, even over rough roads
• offering an easy way to position your phone so you can see the screen without blocking your view of the road
• holding the phone tightly and securely while still allowing you to change the handset’s positioning
• providing an easy way to attach and remove the phone, ideally with one hand
• fitting and supporting any size phone, even in a case

With this criteria in mind, we researched the specs and features of about a hundred available models, searched for well-reviewed and best-selling models on Amazon and popular car sites, and spoke with current and former drivers for Lyft and other services to see what they used and preferred. We also reviewed a 2017 survey of more than 1,000 Wirecutter readers, which gave us insight into how they used their phones in the car.

Before you choose a mount, though, you need to consider where you want it located and how you want to attach your phone to it. There are several different types, and the one that will work best for you depends on your car’s dash design, personal preferences, and, for windshield mounts, regional regulations. To make it easier to choose, we’ve broken down the different types in the following photo gallery.

Dash/windshield mounts keep your phone close to your normal line of sight and typically use a suction cup and/or adhesive to adhere to the dashboard or glass. Some states have laws about where you’re allowed to place devices on the windshield, though. Photo: Rik Paul

How we tested

In order to get a feel for how each model works with different sizes of phones, we tested each mount with a 4-inch iPhone SE (weighing about four ounces), a 4.7-inch iPhone 7 (about 4.9 ounces), and a 6.5-inch iPhone XS Max (about 7.3 ounces). Thom Dunn spent about 20 hours over five days driving our 2006 Volkswagen Jetta over freeways, paved suburban streets, unpaved roads, and cobblestones, rotating each phone through each mount and observing the stability, fit, and general usability for every combination. We also retested our finalists in a 2006 Honda Civic and a 1998 Ford F-150 pickup truck. Finally, we ran our picks through their paces again with a 6-inch Pixel 2 XL Android phone in a Google case.

We evaluated how easy it was to set up the mount on the dash or windshield, attach or remove a phone, and adjust the mount in order to best position the screen. We also evaluated whether the phone remained steady while driving to easily read the screen, if the tension arms or magnet attachment held the phone securely over rough terrain, and how well the mount stayed attached to the car with different phones and driving conditions. For dash mounts and windshield mounts, we also tested the reliability of their suction cups on a window and two textured vinyl dashboards, as well as the textured surface of a Marshall guitar amp.

Our pick: iOttie iTap Magnetic 2

The iOttie iTap Magnetic 2 gives you the best combination of convenience, phone security, and flexibility for holding your phone in a vehicle and providing easy access. The iTap Magnetic 2 is available with three different bases: a dashboard/windshield mount, vent mount, and a CD-slot mount, which means that everyone should be able to find a model that works with their specific car and seating setup.

The iTap Magnetic 2 holds your phone by gripping onto a small metal plate that you attach to your phone or case. Photo: Rik Paul

In our tests, all three versions were able to support a wide range of phone sizes, holding them firm and steady while driving, even over unpaved roads. All three bases attach to the magnet mount with a ball-joint that lets you rotate the phone 360 degrees between vertical/portrait to horizontal/landscape modes, as well as about 45 degrees to the sides or 30 degrees up and back. This wide range of adjustability, combined with the iOttie’s mounting options, means you should be able to find a setup that works well for your vehicle. That said, if you want to mount your phone on a smooth vertical dash surface or in a smaller area, we recommend the Scosche MagicMount Dash.

The iTap Magnetic 2 models are compact—the dash-mounted version is about five inches tall, while the vent and CD-slot versions extend about two inches from the dashboard. This makes them easy to stuff in a pocket or purse for use in other cars.

Like all magnetic phone mounts, these iOttie models require you to attach a small metal plate to the back of your phone or to the case. This is safe for your phone, and while some people might be reluctant to alter their device, we found this detail to be small, subtle, and attractive enough that we didn’t mind. Often you can hide it entirely by attaching the plate to the inside of a phone’s case.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The only issue we encountered in our tests involved a large 6.5-inch iPhone XS Max; when positioned horizontally in landscape mode, it would sometimes slip down slowly while driving. Another tester who has been using the dash version for a couple months to hold his 6-inch Pixel 2 XL (a similar-size device) says it’s been very secure.

Also great: Scosche MagicMount Dash

Also great

The Scosche MagicMount Dash’s small adhesive pad fits in narrow nooks and crannies of the dash where a suction cup won’t hold, and it can hold well even on vertical surfaces. We recommend it if you want to position your phone in one of these spots (where an iOttie iTap Magnetic 2 model won’t work). The MagicMount Dash also has a very wide range of adjustment, which gives you more flexibility in your mounting options. And it was the best at holding even our largest phone securely in all positions and over bumpy rural roads.

Thanks to its adjustable ball-and-socket design, you can place your phone in almost any position, which makes it a better option for mounting on a vertical surface than the iOtties. The MagicMount Dash was also the cheapest model we tested—about half the price of any other mount.

A trade-off is the adhesive pad, which has limitations. In our testing, it held securely on smooth dash surfaces but was less secure on textured ones (which is consistent with the experiences of many Amazon users). In addition, the pad is difficult to remove. And you need a new pad to attach the mount in a new position or vehicle—iOttie mounts transfer more easily.

The MagicMount is available with other bases, including a suction cup and a vent mount, although we haven’t tested those yet.

Also great: Kenu Airframe Pro and Airbase Pro

Also great

Kenu Airframe Pro

The best vent-mounted tension-arm model

You don’t have to put a metal plate on your phone with a tension-arm model, but it’s not as easy to put the phone in or take it off. Kenu’s is the best of this style, with the strongest grip and a design you can operate one-handed.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $27.

It’s not as easy to attach and remove a phone with a tension-arm-type mount, but if you don’t want to adhere a metal plate to your phone or case, we recommend the vent-mounted Kenu Airframe Pro and dash-mounted Kenu Airbase Pro. The sturdiest and easiest-to-use tension-arm models we tested both gripped the side of a phone firmly, and in our tests, they supported even our largest phone while driving over rough surfaces.

Unlike many tension-arm mounts, you only need one hand to attach your phone to the mount—simply push the extendable right tension arm outward until your phone fits and then let go. The tension arm will close automatically around it, holding the phone snugly in place. Removing it is just as easy. Once the phone is attached, the Kenu models are easy to adjust, with 360-degree rotation vertically and horizontally or about 45 degrees of movement tilting back or to the sides. This is similar to the iTap Magnetic 2 but not as wide-ranging as the Scosche MagicMount Dash.

The vent-mounted Kenu Airframe Pro and dash-mounted Airbase Pro have the same tension-arm design, but with different bases. Photo: Rik Paul

The vent-mounted Airframe Pro attached securely to the vent slats in our test cars; you just squeeze on the sides of the mount to open a pair of pinchers and then slip them over the slat. The mount’s compact size also makes it easy to take with you and use it in a different car. Some vent-mounted tension-arm models, such as the Belkin F7U017bt, came off the car with the phone still attached when we tried to remove them, but we didn’t encounter this problem with either Kenu model.

The suction cup on the Kenu Airbase Pro model was similarly stable and held more firmly to the dashboard and windshield for longer periods of time than every other dash-mounted model in our tests except for the Kenu Airbase Magnetic. Both the Airframe Pro and the Airbase Pro are covered under a limited lifetime warranty, while the iOttie and Scosche models offer only a one-year warranty.

What to look forward to

Apple announced the iPhone 14 family of devices in September, which will require new cases. However, existing clamp-based and Magsafe devices should continue to work with the new phones. We’ll have more information about new car phone mounts designed for the iPhone 14 soon.

Apple’s MagSafe accessory standard hasn’t made the meaningful inroads we’d hoped to see since its release in October of 2020. There aren’t any MFi MagSafe charging car mounts yet, and the magnetic, wireless charging car mounts available out there don’t support the 15W charging speed that MFi provides. That said, there are interesting options out there, and we’re currently investigating which mounts to test for future versions of this guide.

The competition

Dash/windshield-mounted models with magnetic attachments

Our previous runner-up pick, the Kenu Airbase Magnetic, worked well in our testing, although a staffer who tested it long-term said that his large 6-inch Pixel 2 XL (in a Google case) would gradually slide off of the mount during extended use.

The Scosche MagicMount Pro was similar in strength and stability to the Scosche MagicMount Dash, but the suction cup base was small and didn’t work quite as well as the Dash’s adhesive pad or the suction cups on our other dash picks.

Dash/windshield-mounted models with tension arms

The Aukey 360 Degree Rotation Dashboard / Windshield Car Phone Holder has a unique scooped gooseneck connecting the mount to the base. While the plastic itself offers a bit more stability than the extendable necks found on other dash-mounted models, there’s no way to tighten the neck at the base like you can with our previous top, the iOttie Easy One Touch 4, which leads to a bouncier screen. That being said, we did like the silicone padding in the cradle, even if the tension arms were a bit slow to open.

Our previous top pick, the iOttie Easy One Touch 4, has some handy features such as a cradle that automatically closes the tension arms when a phone is pressed against it and a neck that can extend up to eight inches for extra adjustability. It worked well in our testing, although a couple Wirecutter staffers complained that it sometimes allowed the phone to sag downward during long-term testing. We recommend the wireless charging version in our guide to wireless charging phone mounts for cars.

Vent-mounted models with magnetic attachments

The Kenu Airframe Magnetic performed similarly to the iOttie iTap Magnetic 2 in our testing. The magnet grip was slightly less reliable, but we still think it’s a good replacement if that pick is not available.

The Logitech ZeroTouch is small, sturdy, and reliable enough but offers no adjustability. Unlike any other mount we tested, it does offer Amazon Alexa functionality when used with the ZeroTouch app on an Android phone. We had previously tested this feature but found its appeal limited, especially since you can get the same basic functionality through the Android phone’s Google Assistant.

Vent-mounted models with tension arms

The vent-mounted Aukey Car Phone Mount is essentially the same as the dash-mounted model that we also dismissed, but it doesn’t suffer from the same stability problems because it doesn’t have the same gooseneck setup. In fact, it performed almost as well as the Kenu Airframe in our tests. We particularly liked the firm grip of the padded tension arms; unfortunately, they also took an annoyingly long time to open. If the Kenu Airframe isn’t available, this is still a good alternative.

The iOttie Easy One Touch 4, a previous top pick, is a vent-mounted version of the Easy One Touch 4 dash mount described above, although it doesn’t have an extendable neck.

The Belkin F7U017bt was generally stable in our testing, and we found it easy to attach and remove our phones. However, you can only rotate the phone between portrait to landscape positions, with no option to tilt it up and back or down and to the sides. It also didn’t connect to the vent slats as well as the Kenu, and whenever we tried to remove our phone, the Belkin tended to come along with it.

CD-slot–mounted models

Our previous top pick for this segment, the iOttie Easy One Touch 4, is a CD-slot version of the Easy One Touch 4 vent model described above.

We had also previously recommended the iOttie iTap Magnetic as an alternative CD-slot–mounted pick, but the magnets on the newer iTap Magnetic 2 are far superior, especially if you have a larger phone.

The CD-slot–mounted ExoGear ExoMount Touch CD was fine, if a little cumbersome. The tension arms worked well enough, but the knobs and dials could be difficult to adjust, including several times when they spun off entirely.

TechMatte’s MagGrip CD Slot Car Mount was another former top pick, but it was more difficult to install than other CD-slot–mounted models, and a few people report in Amazon reviews that the rubber melted into their CD player, though we didn’t experience that problem ourselves.

Other models

We’d noticed that readers seemed to be interested in horizontally-oriented dashboard mounts, so we tested out several models that were either top sellers, or otherwise intriguing. While they were all impressively stable across different dashboards, they each proved difficult to use in their own unique ways. The Loncaster Car Phone Holder was probably the best of the batch we looked at; unfortunately, the lightweight silicone base didn’t support phones very well against the pressure of a tapping finger. If you just want to look at horizontal maps, it could be great, but any other interaction with the phone was basically impossible. The iPow Anti-Slip Silicone Dashboard Pad suffered from a similar problem—although it came with a few custom rubber bracket options that you can adjust to fit different phones, they all turned out to be too wobbly. The Boysnoy Dashboard Car Phone Holder was the only horizontal model we tested where the phone didn’t buckle under the pressure from our fingers. However, it also limits access to the buttons on the side of your phone. What was even more annoying, however, was that the anti-slip rubber mat on the bottom kept getting detached from the rubber base. The adhesive ring remained firmly stuck to the dashboard, but otherwise that floppy rubber mat was barely holding on. We couldn’t recommend something so cheaply constructed.

We also tested the HengBeng Multipurpose Phone Bracket, which is essentially a kickstand for your phone that also (allegedly) fits onto your vent slats. It worked fine as a cheap plastic phone stand. As a car mount, it just kind of left the phone hanging limply from the vent. No thanks.

The Amayga Air Vent Universal Car Phone Bracket has a unique mounting system that’s basically a collapsible bracket that expands and catches your phone like a harness when you place it on the pegs. And it actually works! Except it doesn’t hold the phone very steady, and every time you step on the brake, you keep double-checking to make sure your phone didn’t come flying off the mount. It’s also annoying to have to lift your phone out of the harness afterward when you want to leave the car.

We also tested the cupholder-mounted Weathertech CupFone, which surged to popularity after being advertised during the 2019 Super Bowl. It was stable and had an interesting (if cumbersome) wedging system to adjust the stacking-cup base. But because it sits in the cupholder, you have to look down to see the phone, which takes your eyes off the road for longer than with other types of mounts.