I was able to talk the Verizon PR representative into letting me review two of the accessories for the Droid as a ploy to keep the it a little longer, I mean, as a nice companion to the series of reviews on the Droid. In this post I will look at the Car Mount, and later I will look at the Dock.
What’s Included:
- Mounting arm with suction cup.
- Disk to attach to dashboard for non-windshield mounting.
- Cradle for phone.
- Instructions.
What’s Not:
- Car Charger. This isn’t a “Car Kit” it’s a Car Mount.
I did not use the disk. I attached the holder to the windshield. One of the nice features of this accessory (and the dock) is that there is a small magnet in both that tells the Droid that it is attached. This means as soon as you turn on your phone it displays the Car Home when when it is in the cradle.
To see more information on how navigation works with the Droid, look at the Navigating with Verizon’s Droid post. You can rotate your phone vertical, or horizontal, but I think the horizontal position works best for navigation.
I was surprised how well the suction cup holds the phone and holder. There is a lever you press down to engage the suction cup:
The clear tab underneath the lever is used to break the suction after you release the lever. Even after releasing the lever, it would be difficult to remove it without this handy tab. I did not get to take that long of a trip with it, but it seemed very secure.
The cradle works very nicely. The phone fits very securely in it. The design utilized the little step down on the bottom part of the phone (where the Verizon logo is), and the angled edges of the phone very effectively to hold the phone.
I was very impressed by the thought that seemed to go into this accessory. It is a safe and convenient way to mount your phone. My only disappointment is that it does not come with a car charger.
Product Information
| Price: | $29.99 |
| Manufacturer: | Motorola |
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@Bryan
I have a similar style mounting system for my Sirius Satelite radio and it works quite well. The only times I have issues with the suction cup is if there is a drastic change in weather (mainly a drastic drop in temp) The suction cup then merely needs to be reattached but it usually only happens a couple of times a year.
I did have a question though regarding this mount. Is there a way to force the droid to the standard screen while it is mounted in the holder? ( in case I want to just keep the Droid in view and not laying in a cup holder)
If there isn’t a way to over ride the magnet switch, can the Droid just be mounted the opposite direction then?
(the magnet for the car dock is on one end…the camera end I believe ) Flipping the Droid in the car dock should allow the car dock to be used as a standard holder then….but its just a guess of mine. Is there a way that you could confirm this?
thanks
@Mark
The Home Icon in the center bottom of the Auto Home screen takes you to the standard home screen. The mount uses the little lip on the bottom of the phone to secure, you you could not mount it in backwards.
There seems to be two versions as well, I bought the $39.99 one from best buy and it came with the charger. The glue on pad wouldn’t stick to my dash so I ended up putting the window mount al the way up by the mirror to get it close enough to reach. The phone can’t go in the mount backwards but you can just hit the home icon to get into the normal mode.