If you’ve bought a new vehicle in the past few years, it undoubtedly came with a built-in touchscreen or display of some sort so you can interact with your smartphone for basic tasks like navigation. However, many older vehicles lack this feature–and handing a smartphone while driving is classified as distracted driving in many jurisdictions. Where I live in Canada (Ontario), the first time you get caught tapping that smartphone screen while driving is a fine of $615 to $1,000 plus a 3-day suspension of your driver’s license and three demerit points. However, if your phone is securely mounted to the dashboard, you can legally interact with it.
Understandably, there’s a big market for car dash mounts. Many of these are clunky affairs, made of cheap plastic. They can be wobbly, especially when you try to attach a large phone like one of Apple’s Plus series models. Many use a clamp-style attachment with springs–these can be difficult to use, the springs can fail over time, and aggressively tight versions can even damage you smartphone case. All that hard plastic can also rattle when you’re driving around, which quickly gets annoying.
Peak Design offers a very appealing option in the Car Mount SlimLink phone accessory. It features a premium, anodized aluminum build, a ballhead that can hold the phone in portrait or landscape mode, premium (and removable) 3M adhesive pads, neodymium mounting magnets and it is Apple MagSafe compatible.
For a 10 year-old Mazda used primarily as a dog hauler and work vehicle by a pair of 21 year-olds, each equipped with an iPhone 15 Plus, the Peak Design Car Mount seemed like the ideal solution.
Easy Installation, But Take Your Time
Peak Design provides everything you need for installation, including two weatherproof 3M VHB adhesive strips (one is a spare), an alcohol wipe and detailed instructions.
You don’t want to be doing this a second time, even though the adhesive pad can be removed and an extra is included in the box. So planning is critical. You need to find a surface on the dashboard that will accommodate both the mount and a smartphone, in such a way that the display is in full view of the driver, yet nothing important (like a button or gauge) is obstructed. Every vehicle is different and ours was a bit of a challenge in this regard. I finally found the spot, but it was a vertical surface. I would have preferred horizontal (less separation stress between the base and the dashboard), but that’s what I had to work with…
Next, you need to clean that surface thoroughly with the included alcohol wipe and give the surface time to dry. Finally, you use one of the 3M adhesive pads to attach the car mount to the dashboard, applying pressure for half a minute or so. And then you need to wait a day for that bond to solidify. Put the weight of your phone on before then and it’s liable to pop off.
For best results, take your time during installation and do it right.
Looks Great, Works Well, Love the MagSafe Compatibility
The Peak Design Car Mount looks very minimalist in comparison to many others, especially mounts with articulating arms and phone clamps. It looks premium and the anodized aluminum adds to that. There are zero rattles when driving around.
The SlimLink magnetic attachment technology used in the Car Mount works as advertised. Only one hand required. The iPhones snapped on securely, with no fussing whatsoever. They removed easily as well, although the magnetic connection was strong enough to keep the iPhones (which were in a MagSafe-compatible case) secure, even over bumps. The ballhead holds the phone’s position effectively.
Operation was just as good with my iPhone 14 Pro Max, the heaviest phone Apple has ever made…
Don’t have a MagSafe phone? Peak Design sells SlimLink cases with built-in magnet support for iPhones, Pixel Phones and a range of Samsung smartphones. For everything else, you can buy a universal SlimLink adapter that will stick to pretty much any third-party phone case.
The only issue we encountered wasn’t really an issue, but the Car Mount’s relatively short arm means that rotation of the attached phone’s display can be limited. That will vary by vehicle and base placement, of course, and in ours it did not in any way impact phone view-ability.
Peak Design Auto Mount Recommendation
If your vehicle lacks a built-in display and requires you to go hands-on with your mobile phone for tasks like navigation, a dashboard car mount will make your life a lot easier–and safer.
When it comes to aesthetics and ease of use, few car mounts can match the anodized aluminum with MagSafe compatibility of the Peak Design Auto Mount. It looks good and not like a MacGyvered afterthought, and the magnetic fastening works brilliantly. At $44.95, it is also quite reasonably priced. If you want to throw wireless charging in the mix, the $79.95 Charging version of the Peak Design car mount includes a low profile cigarette lighter adapter, USB-C cable, clips and a wireless charging pad integrated in the mount head.
Disclosure: Peak Design provided a Car Mount for evaluation purposes but had no input into this review.
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