Hands on Review of the iPhone 3G Car Pack

Since the launch of Sat Nav on the iPhone earlier this year, the number of in-car holders for the iPhone has grown significantly and with so many available, I decided to go hands on with one of the latest car holders for the iPhone 3G & 3GS – the iPhone Car Pack – to see what makes this one different from the rest.

iPhone 3G Car Pack

The Car Pack is made up of 3 items – a suction mount, a cradle for your iPhone and a car charger and putting it together takes just a few seconds.

Mouting it on your windscreen is quick and easy too. The suction mount is solid and unlike some cheap suction holders, doesn’t need to be moistened to stick to the windscreen and once it’s attached the only way to remove it is to release the clamp. The clamp itself is a lot easier to use than you’d expect too.  Normally, suction mounts have a small plastic lever that doesn’t seem to move very much and as a result it doesn’t create much suction to hold the cradle in place – that’s not the case with the Car Pack though, the level moves a considerable amount, which provides plenty of suction to keep your holder in place.

Once it’s attached to the windscreen, you’ll need to adjust the angle of the holder to suit your driving position. This is done easily enough as the cradle can be adjusted in 3 ways. Depending on which way up you’ve attached it to the windscreen, you can adjust it up/down, left/right and the cradle can rotate through 360°. While it’s easy enough to adjust, it’s not really something that you can do once you’ve started driving, so I’d make sure that you’re happy with the position before you set off – the reason I say that is the up/down and left/right joints are locked in place and to adjust them you need to press a button and then rotate it – something that really needs two hands.

The Cradle that you slide your phone does a great job too.  You slide your phone in from the top, and once inserted, a spring loaded clip moves into place to prevent the phone from falling out – (more useful for when the phone is being used in landscape mode).

Overall it’s a great holder. I’ve tried many different car holders over the years, but can happily say the iPhone Car Pack is one of the most solid I’ve ever used.  The locking arm means that once set, it’s not going to keep moving around or start to drop every time you go over a bump in the road.

My rating: 9/10