As the name suggests, the Ugreen Magnetic Car Phone Holder uses a magnet to keep your phone in place. But before buying one, consider first that this might be a problem if you have wireless charging on your device.
First of all, devices with wireless charging don’t have metal bodies. That’s because wireless charging cannot work through metals, so obviously, a glass device is not going to stick on the magnet. But the Ugreen Magnetic holder comes with two metal plates: one large rectangular and one smaller circular metal plate. These can be placed on the phone directly with the pre-installed double-sided tape or inside your phone case.
The second concern is once you place that metal plate on your phone or case you are disabling the wireless charging. It’s not going to cause the wireless charging coil to overheat or explode or anything like that but it’s going to create a barrier that will prevent it from using that feature. If you place the plate on your phone case, then that kind of solves the problem, just remove it from the case every time you want to wirelessly charge.
Why Magnets?
I chose the magnetic mount over the grip mounts for one reason only: my wife was worried that her phone was getting crushed by a previous grip mount I purchased. Of course “crushed” is an embellishment but it did tend to activate her Google Pixel’s squeeze for Assistant feature and sometimes would squeeze my power or volume rocker if it wasn’t placed correctly.
Since neither of our phones has wireless charging we didn’t have any issues placing a metal plate on the back, but I opted to have it inside the case so there’s no weird patch on the back. You’ll be pleased to know that the magnet in the car phone holder is strong enough to attract the metal plate even through a decently thick grip case.
3M Adhesive
I chose the adhesive mount over the clips that attach to the air-conditioning air vent because vent mounts tend to destroy the vent. They were never really designed to have some hanging off of them and so like in my wife’s Crosswind SUV, an air vent mounted phone holder eventually dislodged it. Finding replacement parts for a vehicle that’s over a decade old is a nightmare.
You may be worried about putting sticking adhesives on your dashboard, but if you’re willing to pay the premium for a 3M mounting tape you really don’t have anything to worry about because they are specifically designed to leave minimal to no damage when removed.
Just remember that adhesives stick better on smooth surfaces than on textured interiors, Ugreen users have reported that the pre-installed 3M adhesive of its car mount doesn’t stick onto their textured dashboard but buying the outdoor 3M double-sided tape from Ace Hardware easily fixes the problem.
Ugreen Quality
One reason I keep coming back to Ugreen accessories is that the brand is consistent in providing quality and affordability. Even the packaging itself already gives you a level of assurance that they put a lot of thought into their products.
The car phone holder has the same feel and quality as any other Ugreen product, and it feels and looks durable. Even though it’s primarily made from some sort of plastic it doesn’t at all feel flimsy or cheap.
The one drawback I have an issue with is that the magnetic car phone holder has an angled neck which gives it a very specific mounting location. It has to be placed on the top surface or at a certain angle otherwise your phone will be mounted awkwardly. This means that your device will be jutting out above your dash and exposed to the sun, mine is placed just above the centerline air vents so it doesn’t block a large portion of air but at least immediately gets cooled from the airconditioning.
At almost Php 400, it’s more expensive than many other similar options. But with Ugreen you can be sure you are getting quality you can rely on and over a hundred five-star reviews aren’t lying. Plus, Ugreen offers free shipping on certain items and discount vouchers so you can always get value when buying multiple items from Ugreen.