There's nothing worse for your iPhone battery health than heat. Yet time and again, people buy vent-attached car mounts that heat up and harm their batteries. Short term, your screen can go dim and your phone could even shut down. Long term, your battery could suffer permanent damage.
That's where ExoGear's ExoMount Touch CD comes in. Instead of using the event, it makes use of the — probably unused in the age of digital music — CD slot, and that not only puts it at the perfect height and angle, it protects it from harm as well.
The plastic slits that most car vents use can easily be snapped when inserting or removing a phone from a vent mount. Unless you're sporting a magnetically attached phone mount, you're best served by using two hands when mounting and unmounting your phone. The connection to your CD slot offers a very sturdy and stable mount point (I was surprised at how little the mount moved). The mount is steady enough for you to easily insert and remove your phone with one hand whilst not affecting the positioning. Since you're not messing about with the vent, you have little chance of damaging a section of your car due to a flimsy mount point.
Windshield-mounted holders allow for more in your line of sight, but remove a good section from your field of view for your driving. Placing it in the CD slot will more likely be out of your direct line of site but still be within eyeshot. This also allows for an unobstructed field of view of your windscreen.
ExoGear's ExoMount Touch CD
I can see why the ExoMount comes highly regarded.
Installation is a snap. Put the flat end in your CD slot and turn the plate screw until the mount is secured in the slot. Done.
Mounting your phone with one hand is really easy. You can use the spring release button to open the grips or just shimmy each side into place. Since the mount is so sturdy you needn't worry about moving the positioning or breaking the mount point when using one hand.
The same can be said for releasing the phone from the mount. One handed operation can be done with the quick release on the back or just grab and shimmy out.
You can mount any smartphone 3.5 to 6.2 inch screens including all iPhone and all Samsung Galaxy phones.
Noted issues
As nice as of an idea the ExoMount Touch CD is, it does have some annoying drawbacks.
The plastic feels really cheap. Think dollar store phone mount cheap. The design of the ExoMount Touch CD is too good to be wasted upon this low grade plastic. I worry that although I won't break a component on my vehicle, I may very well break the ExoMount. I'd much prefer a sturdier plastic or even a rubber coated plastic instead.
The cheap plastic also has me worried that I may break something on the ExoMount if I over tighten the lock screw. I am usually overly zealous when tightening screws and bolts and the ExoMount really had me wondering where the point of failure would be if I were to over tighten it
Finally, the location of your CD slot determines the location of your mount point. You have no choice other than flipping the mount upside down, as to where you can place your phone.
Demo video
Here's ExoGear's demo video on how to use the ExoMount Touch CD.
The bottom line
Pros:
- Easy to install.
- One hand mounting and unmounting of your phone.
- Excellent design.
- Fits a wide variety of phone sizes.
Cons:
- Plastic has a cheap feel.
- Limited options for placement.
You can pick up an ExoMount Touch CD phone mount from ExoGear for $29.95 USD.
Final thoughts
I've never been satisfied with any of my car phone mounts. The placement on the windscreen or the vent always came with drawbacks that had me preferring to just keep my phone in my pocket. The ExoMount Touch CD has changed my perception. I like the fact that I'm using the never utilized CD slot and the placement of my audio system makes it an ideal location. I hope that I'm wrong about the quality of the plastic and that it is rugged enough for daily use in my car.
What about you? What do you use in your car as a phone mount, if anything at all? Let us know in the comments!
