Belkin F7U017BT - Car Vent Mount

(This product was provided to me in exchange for a fair and honest review.)You'd usually just look at a vent mount like this is the cell phone accessories bin by the register at a gas station, and you can pick up something similar - rubber fins slide into your car's HVAC vent and holds your phone in place. However, Belkin's Car Vent Mount has a better build quality for more much more money than these gas station specials do. It also opens wide enough to hold an iPhone 8 Plus in a relatively thick TPU case, but closes narrow enough to hold a small MP3 player (think iPod Nano 4th, 5th, or 7th generation) in place.It does work well with cars that have vertically stationary vents (as in louvres in the vent move to direct air or the vent opening moves from left to ... More(This product was provided to me in exchange for a fair and honest review.)You'd usually just look at a vent mount like this is the cell phone accessories bin by the register at a gas station, and you can pick up something similar - rubber fins slide into your car's HVAC vent and holds your phone in place. However, Belkin's Car Vent Mount has a better build quality for more much more money than these gas station specials do. It also opens wide enough to hold an iPhone 8 Plus in a relatively thick TPU case, but closes narrow enough to hold a small MP3 player (think iPod Nano 4th, 5th, or 7th generation) in place.It does work well with cars that have vertically stationary vents (as in louvres in the vent move to direct air or the vent opening moves from left to right while louvres in the vent direct air up and down). For vents that aren't vertically stationary, like in many Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep vehicles from the late 1990s through the 2000s, this doesn't work as the weight of your device being held in place by the vent will drag it down. It would need an extension of some sort to hold the device in place.Also - and this isn't a design fault of the Vent Mount, it's an inherent issue with this style of cell phone holder - your car's HVAC settlings can affect how your device runs. In my case, my heat gets hot enough at full blast to cause my phone to slow down after an hour, and the AC in my wife's car gets cold enough to cause her iPhone to shut down due to temperature if the duct for the vent used is left open.If you don't mind closing an HVAC vent in your car (unless you need to warm up or cool down your phone), this is a decent solution.

Pros: This is a very simple-looking mount that works well. It is well-made with a particularly good grip.Cons: This applies to all such vent-mounts: their effectiveness depends very much on the design of your particular vents. Which is why I gave it 5 for performance. It is impossible to tell how well it will work without trying it. I tried 3 different vent-mounts and settled on one with double grips. It is much more stable than either the Belkin or another in that it avoids - or minimises - side to side rocking. (Which can lead to the mount and phone falling off.)

This is a really well made unit, that fits in the vent nicely, but it completely blocks the vent (I know that sounds obvious...).Other similar devices have an adjustable arm that makes your phone sit lower, and further out so it doesn't completely block the vent.I ended up getting the cygnet instead, which is much better.Good device if you don't mind the vent being completely unusable.