Brodit Round up: A guide to Car Holders

Brodit are the market leaders in phone specific mobile phone holders for use in the car. They’ve been around for years and as phones have become smarter, so have their holders.

When I first started dealing with Brodit back in 2000, you had a choice of 2, either an Active Brodit Holder or aPassive Brodit Holders, and each one came in a choice of two mounting options – a fixed, static bracket or one on a tilting, rotating base.

10 years on and the basics are still the same, but there are now a number of other options to choose from so that you can use your phone exactly how you want to in the car.

This guide will run through each of the various types of holder available and explain some of the key differences between them.

Active Vs Passive

The main difference with all of them will be whether it’s Active or Passive. An active holder is one that incorporates a car charger. A passive one doesn’t and will just hold your phone.

As we’ve only just gone live with the range of Brodit iPhone 4 Holders, I’m using them as the examples in this post, but Brodit Car Holders are available for just about every phone on the market. The exact styles of holder will vary by phone. If you can’t see the one you want then get in touch and we’ll do our best to find you the holder you want.

Brodit Passive Holders

This is the most popular style of Brodit holder as it keeps your phone secure, but still leaves all the ports accessible. This means that you can continue to use your existing car chargers and audio cables. To use the holder you usually slide your phone into two grooves in the sides or the cradle and you can then rotate and tilt the holder to get your phone exactly as you want it. In most cases the holder his all plastic, but for iPhone and iPod touch they usually have a velvety finish that prevents scratches to the glass or metal parts of the phone.

The Locking Holder is a new style that has just been released for iPhone 4 and I’d expect it to be available for other handsets shortly. It’s the same basic holder as the one above, but has an extra support that clips onto the top of the phone. You won’t need the extra support when using the phone in portrait mode, but if you use sat nav in the car you’ll find that it does a great job of keeping the phone in place when you are using the phone in landscape mode. It also has a cable tidy at the base that you can use to keep your car charger close at hand.

Brodit Active Holders

Active holders are slightly bulkier than passive holders, but only because they house a charging connector to your phone. Again, the style of the holder will very depending on your phone and where the charging port is, but generally speaking you’ll find that a cable comes out of the base of the cradle and into a car charger adapter. This could be a moulded cigarette lighter plug or a USB cable with a USB adapter.

Either way, it’s a great option if you spend a lot of time making calls while on the road as your phone will start to charge as soon as it’s docked and the engine is started. This type of holder is available for pretty much every phone on the market.

As well as the standard holder, Brodit have also released a Locking Active holder. Again, it’s iPhone 4 only at the moment, but with more smartphones being used as Sat Nav’s I’d expect this to become a standard style holder.

Brodit Holders with Pass Through

If you don’t have an iPhone I’ll apologise now as the next few holders are all iPhone specific. The Pass Through Holder is slightly unusual, but is the perfect addition if you’ve got a hardwired car kit such as the Parrot MKi 9000. It’s available as a standard holder or with the locking arm, but instead of having a car charger built in, it has a second dock port in the base.

This sounds odd, but it means that you can plug your car charger, car kit, FM transmitter or audio cables into the holder and leave them connected permanently. When you get in the car, you’ll only need to slide your phone into the holder and your accessory will connect to the phone. No more messing around trying to find the end of your car charger between the front seats. Just plug it in and forget about it. The Pass Through Holder is only available for iPhone 3G/3GS and iPhone 4.

Find out More: Brodit Holder for iPhone 4 with Pass Through

Find out More: Brodit Holder for iPhone 3G / 3GS with Pass Through

Brodit Holders for Phones in Cases

If you use a case or skin on your phone, you’ll know that it can be a bit of a pain having to constantly remove it from the case to put it in a holder. Brodit know this so they’ve developed a couple of holders that can take your phone while it’s in a case. The downside is that it’s only for Apple devices. There are currently two options available.

The first is a standard Passive holder that’s been moulded to accommodate iPhone 4 with a genuine Apple Bumper fitted. You just slide your phone in as you would normally. The dock is still exposed so you can still use a car charger with it.

Find out More: Brodit Holder for iPhone 4 with Bumper

The other, more flexible solution is the adjustable passive holder. This does take a few minutes to set it up, but once done it will hold your iPhone 3G/3GS or iPhone 4 no matter what case you’ve got on it. The way it works is that the two sides both slide in, out, up and down, and once in place you just tighten a screw.

Find out More: Brodit Adjustable Holder for iPhone 4

Find out More: Brodit Adjustable Holder for iPhone 3G / 3GS

Mounting in your Car

Brodit Holders hold your phone securely, but you’ll still need to securely attach them to your car. Brodit recommend that you screw them to your dashboard, but as most of use will have spent thousands on our cars, the last thing we’re going to want to do to them is put 4 screw holes in the dashboard.

Fortunately Brodit have come up with a solution for this with the Brodit ProClip. Proclips are made from the same tough plastic that the holders are made from and are made to clip securely onto your dashboard without causing any damage. ProClips normally slot between two fascia panels on your dashboard and can be fitted in seconds with out the need to dismantle your dash or any special tools.

ProClips provide a flat, sturdy surface for you to screw your holder on to, and when it’s time to change the car, simply unclip the ProClip and you’ll never know it was there.  Brodit ProClips start from around £15 and will work with any screw fix phone holder, not just those made by Brodit.

Everything shown here can be found in the Brodit Car Holders section of the main site. We’ve tried to cover the most popular vehicles, but as there are so many available we can’t list them all. If you can’t see the one you need, send us an email and we’ll get source one for you.