iPhone Car Holders are a must have item – especially if you use your iPhone for Sat Nav. I’ve already covered some of the most popular mounting solutions for the iPhone in my post on Using Sat Nav on the iPhone, but this week I came across the Navigon iPhone Holder and Car charger and thought it was worth reviewing.
Navigon iPhone 3GS / 3G Car Holder - With Car Charger
Navigon were one of the first software companies to launch a Sat Nav application for the iPhone and it often features in the top ten apps in iTunes. The Navigon Car holder is designed to compliment their software and provide you with a simple and effective in car holder.
Features
There’s not really a lot you can say about a phone holder, after all, it is just a holder. Unlike the TomTom iPhone Car Kit, the Navigon car holder doesn’t have a GPS receiver or loud speaker built in, but there are a couple of features that make this one stand out.
Firstly there’s a discrete cable holder built in to the underneath of the arm. While this might not sound that great, it does mean that once your cable is clipped into it you won’t have to fish around between the seats to find the end of your charging cable when you want to charge your iPhone.
Built in cable holder saves time
The cradle for the iPhone has a ball joint fitting so that allows you to rotate it through 360° – nothing new, but what I did like with the Navigon holder is that it’s the only car holder that I’ve seen that lets you tighten up the ball joint when it starts to come loose (although the allen key needed isn’t included).
Design
As holders go, it’s slim and it’s not bad to look at, although from the images on the box I did expect it to be a little slimmer than it is, although it’s by no means bulky.
Simple, slim design
The cradle allows you to slide your iPhone in and out quickly and easily and it can be done with one hand, you just pull your phone forward slightly and lift it out. There’s no spring clip to keep your phone in place, but given the shape of the cradle I really can’t see that it would ever fall out.
In the Box
Navigon are rather generous. Instead of just including a generic third party car charger, they’ve partnered with Belkin to include the Belkin Micro Auto Charger + Charge Sync Cable.
Belkin Micro Auto Car Charger Included
This is one of the most compact car chargers available for the iPhone and can be left in your cigarette socket even when not being used – just remove the USB cable and it will look like a standard USB Port in your dashboard.
Why choose the Navigon iPhone Holder?
Navigon Car holder for iPhone
The Navigon iPhone holder is a solid, sturdy holder that will work brilliantly with your iPhone and any Sat Nav App. The suction pad is strong and the built in cable holder is a nice touch – although it would have been even better if you could connect the cable to the base of the cradle so that it connected each time you put your phone in.
My Rating: 9/10
Yes, the Brodit Active Holder with Pass Through (https://www.mobilefun.co.uk/brodit-passive-holder-with-tilt-swivel-pass-through-connection-iphone-3gs-3g-p17515.htm) although it’s not designed to be a windscreen mounted one, you can fix it to a universal windscreen mount. Given the weight of the phone though I’d recommend a dash fixing (with a Pro Clip to avoid drilling holes in your dash)
Andy,
re your last sentence: “although it would have been even better if you could connect the cable to the base of the cradle so that it connected each time you put your phone in.”
Do you know of *any* cradle that has an integrated connector (instead of a separate one)?
(To my knowledge if you want an integrated connector you have to buy a TomTom or Magellan holder with gps included…).
Thanks in advance for any pointers,
~h