What happened to OC? - CLOSED Carnage?!
Takka

QI Phone Holder Smackdown

So I've been looking for a phone mount with inductive charging for my car, but it's been surprisingly hard to find something that actually works. Here's a rundown of those I tried:

 

 

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Automatic Holder by IKOPO

 

This holder claims to feature inductive Fast Charging, and a sensor that triggers the arms to grasp your phone when it's placed.

 

I didn't need anything quite this fancy, but it had overwhelmingly positive reviews, and lots of them (250+). However while it explicitly claims Fast Charge support for the Galaxy S7 (what I have), it would only charge at the standard rate. My case isn't bulky, and my two inductive chargers at home have no trouble initiating Fast Charge through it, but no matter how much I tried, swapped cables, and adjusted where the phone sat in the charger, it refused to Fast Charge. Yet unfortunately that was not my greatest complaint, because when the charger is powered and doesn't have the phone sitting in it, the arms will spaz out with any movement within the 3 feet in front of it. Also even when the phone set in it, the holder would occasionally open and drop my phone.

 

If it had just one of these issues, I might consider it a rare defective unit, but at this point I wasn't willing to roll the dice on replacing it with another of the same.

 

 


 

 

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Holder by PROBWAY

 

This holder also features inductive Fast Charging, however unlike the one by IKOPO, it features a much simpler gravity clasp, meaning that the weight of the phone pressing down on the bottom arm is what tightens the side arms.

 

This is more of the type of holder I was originally looking for, but due to my experience with IKOPO's, I opted to test out how well it cradles and charges before actually mounting it in the car. It successfully initiated Fast Charge with my phone, however my thin case proved to be too bulky for the arms to grip over my phone. Additionally, despite this holder also stating support for the Galaxy S7, the side arm grips directly over the phone's power button. I couldn't resolve this by adjusting the ride height because the bottom arm is not adjustable, as it's used for the gravity clasp. So even if I didn't use a case with my phone, this holder will not work for the S7.

 

 


 

 

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Holder by Baseus

 

The final holder also features the inductive Fast Charging and a gravity clasp (weight of phone tightens side arms).

 

I was pleased to find that this one actually initiates Fast Charge successfully, and does cradle my phone pretty well. However it does partially obstruct my phone's power button, so if I didn't have a case giving it a little extra height, it would be quite problematic for an S7, or some smaller phone. I found my biggest complaint to be with the mount itself, because it doesn't actually include a suction mount, like the others; it's only designed to clip onto vent slats. Luckily I managed to remove the clip at the ball-joint, and found that the suction mount from PROBWAY's holder fit perfectly.

WaeV likes this

Oddly, this is familiar to you... as if from an old dream.  

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Tiddy-bits:

The first one is a perfect example of an overly complex solution to a problem nobody has. Which it then fails at anyway. Good job, boys. I'm interested to know how this works out.

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1 hour ago, Sunstriker7 said:

The first one is a perfect example of an overly complex solution to a problem nobody has. Which it then fails at anyway. Good job, boys.

I was a bit skeptical about its performance as well.. but all the reviews!

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Oddly, this is familiar to you... as if from an old dream.  

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The last one worked out ...but had a pretty significant snag that needed to be addressed.

 

Details added to the OP!


Oddly, this is familiar to you... as if from an old dream.  

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On 2/17/2018 at 4:59 PM, Tucker933 said:

a sensor that triggers the arms to grasp your phone

I never understand why people try to build complex mechanisms like this.

 

Is the complexity burden really worth the "advantages" over a gravity clasp? Are there even any advantages?

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1 hour ago, WaeV said:

Is the complexity burden really worth the "advantages" over a gravity clasp? Are there even any advantages?

I've noticed the phone will jump out on bumps with the gravity clasp, but there are better alternatives to both.


Oddly, this is familiar to you... as if from an old dream.  

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