The best way to keep your phone protected against knocks or scrapes is to keep it in a case, but this can cause a few problems if you plan on using your phone in a holder in the car. Most car holders are moulded specifically for your phone and don’t allow for any added bulk from cases. Having said that, there are still a number of ways that you can mount your phone in the car while it’s in a case.
There are a couple of things to remember though, the main one being that access to your phone will be slightly limited, so depending on the case you’re using, it may be safer to remove the case from the phone – especially if it covers the keypad. The other thing to bear in mind is that the car holders use side grips to support your phone, so some buttons might become unusable while it’s in one of these holders.
If you want a holder that will give you full access to your phone without covering any buttons or access ports, you’ll be better off with a Brodit Holder but you can’t use them at the same time as a case
I’ve been through our range of Car holders and listed below the best ones for holding phones in cases.
Case Specific Holders
Two of the biggest case manufacturers, Krusell & PDair have realised that people need a way to mount their phone in the car when they’re using a case and have produced holders that are specifically designed to work with their cases. Krusell offer 2 different holders for your phone, one for your windscreen, one for your dashboard.
This holder fixes to your windscreen using a small suction pad and will hold any phone in a Krusell case securely. The mounting port of the holder can be rotated through 360° so you can use your phone in landscape mode for applications such as satellite navigation or music software. It has a quick release suction mount and a flexible arm that lets you position the arm exactly how you want it.
Krusell Car Windscreen Holder
Despite it’s rather daft name, this is actually a great little holder for your phone. It’s only small, about an inch across, and is attached to your dashboard either using an adhesive pad or by screwing it to a flat surface. If you don’t want to drill holes in your dashboard, (I know I certainly wouldn’t) you can attach it to a Brodit ProClip and then clip that on to your dashboard.
Krusell CarHoldic Kit
Brodit ProClips are special brackets that are designed to attach to your dashboard without the need for drilling holes. They normally clip into your dashboard between fascia panels or sit at the side of your stereo. ProClips provide a flat solid surface for you to screw your car holder to and are available for almost all vehicles. See the Brodit ProClip page for more details. If you would rather mount them on your windscreen you can do so by using the Universal Suction mount.
As I mentioned earlier in this post, Brodit are your best option for a phone specific holder and they don’t generally make holders that take phone cases into consideration. When it comes to the iPhone though they make an exception – presumably because they’ve realised that a lot of iPhone users use a silicon case, skin or backplate on their iPhone. Given the number of iPhones sold it’s no surprise then that they have produced a car holder that can be adjusted to hold your iPhone while it’s in a protective case. If you use a leather case on your iPhone, you probably won’t find this much use, but if you use a tight fitting case from people like Switcheasy, Incipio, Seidio or Ed Hardy you’ll have no problem in adjusting this holder to hold your iPhone.
Brodit Holder for iPhones & Skins
PDair Cases are one of our most popular case manufacturers. Their cases are extremely high quality and do a great job of looking after your phone. The PDair Car Mount is designed to work perfectly with their cases and does so in a similar way to the Krusell Windscreen mount. It works by attaching a small clip to the back of the case that then slides into a bracket on a flexible arm. The bracket and clip have been designed to lock in place so that your phone doesn’t swing about while you’re driving.
PDair Car Mount for PDair Leather Case
Screw Fix
The most secure way to fix a car holder in your car is to screw it to a solid surface such as your dashboard or a ProClip and the best holders of this type come from Nokia.
The CR-39 is the smaller holder of the two and is a universal holder with spring loaded adjustable grips. The grips are solid and quite deep, so even if the case on your phone has a belt clip that adds depth to your phone, the CR-39 will still be able to hold it securely, although they might cover or press any buttons that are on the side of your phone. The CR-39 will hold phones in cases up to 120mm tall, 55mm wide and upto 26mm thick and weigh no more than 200g.
Nokia CR-39 Universal Holder
The Nokia CR-82 is similar in many ways to the CR-39, but is capable of holding slightly larger handsets. The most noticable difference is that the side grips on it are ‘hollow’ and won’t cover up as much of the sides of your phone, reducing the chance that they will press or cover any side keys. The bottom support has a built in holder for your car charger too which saves time and prevents you having to hunt for the end of your charger. The CR-82 will hold phones in cases up to 135mm tall, 55mm wide and upto 26mm thick and weigh no more than 200g.
Nokia CR-82 Universal Holder
As standard, both the CR-39 and CR-82 will screw to your dashboard/proclip, but if you wanted to mount it on the windscreen you can do so using the Nokia HH-12 Suction mount. The base is adjustable to pretty much any angle, but once installed and the screws are tightened, it’s not adjustable. You can find out more on the CR-39 and CR-82 on my Guide to Nokia Car Holders.
Windscreen & Air Vent Holders
There are a number of windscreen mount and air vent fixing car holders available, most of which have adjustable grips that allow them to take almost any handset with or without a case.
Windscreen Holder - Medium
Windscreen Holder - Large
Windscreen Holder - Extra Wide
Most windscreen holders work in the same way – A flexible arm that uses a suction pad to fix to your windscreen with an adjustable holder at the end. The only difference between each of the ones shown above is the size of the phone that they can hold. The medium holder will hold phones that are no wider than 65mm, the large holder will hold phones upto 80mm and the extra-wide one will hold phones that are over 90mm but less than 132 mm in width.
Air Vent holders use similarly styled holders to the windscreen holders, but instead clip securely onto the vents in your car. You’ll normally find that the cradles on air vent holders are slightly smaller and that the grips are smaller too and are less likely to cover up any buttons on the side of your phone.
Universal Air Vent Holder
As with the Nokia Holders, the side grips are quite deep, so even if your case has a belt clip that prevents your phone from sitting right back in the holder they will still hold your phone securely. Each of these holders have a quick release button to make removing your phone extremely quick and easy.