Best car phone mounts 2024

The best car phone mounts can be invaluable tools on the road, especially in older, screen-less cars. The problem is that there's such a huge range of options to choose from, that it can feel overwhelming trying to pick the one that's right for you. 

Do you want a mount with a suction cup, or a vent? What if you have MagSafe or a PopSocket on the back of your phone? The possibilities are almost endless, and filtering out the good from the bad is a difficult task. Fortunately we've tested a bunch of car phone mounts of all shapes and sizes here at Tom's Guide — including some you may not have known existed. 

Here are our favorite picks for the best car phone mount to suit your driving needs.

The quick list

Here are the best car phone mounts you can buy right now, based on our own testing. You can scroll down the page to find more in-depth information about each model and what exactly makes them so great.

What are the best car phone mounts?

Best Car Phone Mount Overall

Using a cup holder isn’t the most obvious place to keep your phone mount, but it works surprisingly well. Thanks to its long neck and sturdy construction, we found this holder will hold your phone high enough that it's easily visible while also keeping it out of your field of view. In our testing we found that the holder can jiggle around a little when on bumpy roads, but that’s difficult to avoid given the way this thing works.

The benefits of putting your phone holder into a cup holder are obvious: You don’t lose an air vent or have to deal with suction cups, and damn near every car has cup holders as standard. You’ll lose a place for your skinny latte of course, but that’s the price you pay for not being too hot or cold or worrying that your phone will fall at any moment.

Read the full TopGo Cup Holder Phone mount review

Best car phone mount for older cars

We’ve tested a lot of phone holders and the iOttie Easy One Touch 4 CD Slot Mount is one of our favorites for a simple reason — it takes that CD player that you likely never use and gives it a new lease on life. During our testing we found that installation of the Easy One Touch 4 mount is simple, and the holder almost completely disappears when not in use.

Once set up, your phone isn’t going anywhere and the chances are good that your CD slot will be high enough that your screen is never more than a quick glance away. If you don’t use your CD player — who does? — you can leave the mount installed and you won’t even notice it’s there. Magic.

Read the full iOttie Easy One Touch 4 CD Slot Mount review

Best car phone mount for vents

Belkin's imaginatively-named Car Vent Mount isn’t the cheapest option around, but it does have something most of its competitors don’t: cable management. Belkin included an area for you to keep your charging cable so it doesn’t fly around your car when you aren’t using it, and we found it to be surprisingly effective. There were no more stray cables blocking all those important buttons in our car

Beyond the cable management component, there isn’t an awful lot to the Belkin Car Vent Mount and that isn’t a bad thing at all. What it does, it does well and that’s to hold a phone steady while you drive.

Read the full Belkin Car Vent Mount review

Best suction cup car phone mount

The iOttie Easy One Touch 5 instils confidence in a way few other mounts do. That’s all thanks to its large suction cup that we found to be absurdly strong. Once mounted, an extendable arm means you should be able to put your phone where you want it, bringing it within reach. You can’t change the angle of that arm, so you’ll need to have the whole thing pointing in the right direction.

Like some of the best mounts, this one holds your phone rock steady when you’re driving around, and putting the device into the holder is a simple one-handed affair. People with huge phones should be good to go thanks to the three-point mounting system that can be moved at will.

Read the full iOttie Easy One Touch 5 review

Best car phone mount for MagSafe

If charging your iPhone while on the move is your game, the Sandmarc Active Car Mount is the place to look first. This holder is only compatible with Apple’s more recent iPhones, thanks to its use of MagSafe-compatible mount means it’s one of the better-looking holders we tested.

In terms of charging, the Sandmarc holder is limited to 7.5W, so it isn’t true MagSafe as such. The magnets are super strong, however, and I didn’t have any issues in terms of movement during testing.

Read the full Sandmarc Active Phone Mount review

Best magnetic car phone mount

If the absolute smallest holder you can find is all you need, the YOSHI magnetic mount is for you. As small as a coin, this little thing is surprisingly powerful thanks to the magic of magnets. It’s one of the cheapest options we came across too. Sometimes cheap and cheerful is all you need and this YOSH holder is the epitome of that.

The only potential issue with this holder is the fact you need to affix a disc to the back of your phone — something for the magnets to attach to, It can make the back of your phone look a little untidy, but the mount itself is more than good enough at its job to make that a minor issue. Despite being so small, an iPhone 12 Pro was kept firmly in place by the grip of the magnets — which is seriously impressive.

Read the full Yosh Magnetic Car Phone Mount review

Best car phone mount for pop sockets

If you’re someone who uses a PopSocket to make their huge phone less unwieldy, putting it into a car phone holder can be an issue. As you might expect, the PopSockets people have an answer to that in the form of the PopMount 2 Car Dash holder.

The PopSockets PopMount 2 Car Dash holder has a strong suction cup that should do the trick on most dashboards. The angle of the phone can also be adjusted, and it’s a relatively good-looking bit of kit even when there’s no phone in it — plus its design means it can be folded away when not in use. If you use a PopSocket, this is the one for you.

Read the full Popsockets Popmount 2 review

What to look for in a car phone holder

What you need in a phone holder might be unique to you. But in its most basic form a phone holder needs to hold your phone in the right position and in a way that ensures it won’t move too much when you’re on the road. If it does that, it’s off to a good start.

From there you need to find one that fits where you need it to fit, whether that’s into an air vent, onto your windscreen or dashboard, or somewhere else. You’ll also need to take your phone’s unique qualities into account, like if it has MagSafe or you need something that can accommodate a PopSocket or similar stand. This roundup covers all bases and there should be an option for everyone right here.

How we test car phone holders

Each car phone mount we've reviewed has gone through the same testing regimen, in the same car and (where possible) using the same iPhone 12 Pro. The process begins by making sure the holder can find a solid grip on whichever part of the car it's supposed to attach to — be it the windscreen, air vent, or something else.

It's crucial that this positioning not blocking the drivers' view of the road ahead, but also that the driver can see the phone screen at a glance. Otherwise the mount is failing at its primary goal.

From there it's a case of seeing just how easily a phone can be inserted and removed from the mount. This also involved checking how well any moving parts work, and whether any additional features can do their jobs correctly. This is especially important for mounts that support charging — wireless or otherwise.

Then it all comes down to the design and how conspicuous those mounts are when not in use. A car phone mount may not be essential on a quick local trip, and it's important to know if it'll be particularly cumbersome or whether it can practically disappear.