This Spigen car mount makes mounting your phone effortless — and it’s one of the first vent mounts I actually like

Trying to get your phone in and out of a phone mount can be a hassle. We’ve all been there, struggling to simultaneously open the gripping arms while slipping our handsets inside. The process is a lot more problematic than it should be — especially if you’re in a hurry.

Good news: Spigen’s OneTap Universal Car Mount does not have that issue. The mount's ingenious design lets you pull your phone in and out with minimal time and effort required.

It may not be very minimalist, but what it lacks in form, the OneTap certainly makes up for with function. It may even just have changed my mind about the whole idea of mounting my phone on a dashboard vent.

Read my full Spigen OneTap Universal Car Mount review to find out more.

Spigen OneTap Universal Car Phone Mount: Price & availability

The Spigen OneTap Universal Car Mount comes in two different forms. The air vent model, which I reviewed, sells for $40, but can often be found on sale for around $30.

A suction cup model that sticks to your windshield or dashboard is also available for $55. It, too, is often on sale.

Spigen sells the mount directly, but you can also grab the OneTap Universal Car Mount from online retailers like Amazon.

Spigen OneTap Universal Car Phone Mount: Design

I’ll level with you here — I’ve never been one for vent-mounted phone holders. Maybe I’ve had bad luck with badly made ones in the past, but I’ve always found myself preferring the suction cup option instead.

That's not just because of the OneTap design, which is available on a bunch of Spigen mounts, but because this design actually has a solid hold on the vent itself. And that gives me a lot more confidence that my phone is going to be securely in place.

There’s no denying that the standout design feature here is One Tap system, though. You squeeze the two arms on the outside of the mount to open the cradle. At the back of the cradle is a round button that closes the grips again with a snap.

This is where the name OneTap comes in, and the sensitivity of the button means that placing your phone into the cradle will cause the grips to instantly close and grab hold of your phone.

The grips open pretty wide, too, around 3.5-inches, so they can easily accommodate phones with or without cases — and maybe some smaller tablets if you’re lucky. That cradle can rotate on a ball socket, offering 360 degrees of motion, plus the ability to tilt up and down.

At the back, you'll find a mechanism to clamp the mount onto one of your vents, with a hook designed to grab hold of the fins in your vents. Spinning the knob at the back extends the hook, giving you ample room to slip it into your chosen vent and hook the OneTap mount into place.

Down at the bottom, we have a small shelf which helps secure your phone in place, and can extend by about half an inch if you have a larger model. A cutout in the bottom means that your charging port is always accessible too, letting you plug in while you drive — perfect for Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and general recharging.

The design and the OneTap functionality is the real selling point of the Spigen OneTap Universal Car Mount. So you won’t find any additional features like wireless charging or magnetic docking here.

Spigen OneTap Universal Car Phone Mount: Setup

Setting up the OneTap car mount is a relatively simple process. You twist the knob at the back of the mount in a counter-clockwise direction, and extend the hook far enough that you can push it through your chosen vent and clip onto one of the fins. From there you twist the knob clockwise to retract the hook and secure the mount in place.

I did find the hook a little bit awkward at first, and struggled to get it hooked round the vent fins. However, it seemed I just hadn’t extended the hook enough. Once there was a little more length to the hook, I could slip it into place pretty easily.

Below the hook is a little plastic grip which helps secure the mount and hold it steady once the hook has been fully retracted. It’s quite a secure fit, though I found that fully tightening the hook was putting a little too much stress on the vent fins in my Nissan Leaf.

Whether that happens or not will depend on your car and how the dashboard is designed, but it’s something to be aware of when installing this mount for yourself. You may need to be gentle.

Once in place all, you need to do is rotate the cradle so that your phone is in the right position. The ball-socket is nice and stiff, but not too stiff.

Spigen OneTap Universal Car Phone Mount: Performance

There’s not a lot to dislike about the Spigen OneTap Universal Car Mount once you’re on the road. Provided you’ve actually tightened the mount in place correctly, your phone should be pretty much locked into place for the duration of the trip.

The stiffness of the ball socket means that once you’ve positioned your phone in the OneTap mount, it isn’t going to be going anywhere —certainly not from gravity or minor external forces anyway. I can’t promise what might happen if you encounter a particularly nasty pothole or speed bump, though.

The grips do allow some motion, even when closed, so your phone isn’t rigidly held in place. Thankfully, this shouldn’t be an issue while you’re driving, even if you like to drive too fast around tight turns for a little extra G-Force. But it is something to be aware of, even if it’s only so that you don’t panic and think the OneTap mechanism is broken.

Speaking of which, the OneTap system is quite brilliant. While the mechanism itself may look horrifying to those of you religiously devoted to minimalism, it makes storing your phone supremely easy.

Open the grips, put your phone in place, and everything snaps back into place. It was completely effortless, assuming I hadn’t forgotten to take my phone out of my pocket first.

Spigen OneTap Universal Car Phone Mount: Verdict

The Spigen OneTap Universal Car Mount is pretty basic compared to a lot of premium car phone mounts out there. It’s also more expensive than your basic no-brand mount you’d find on retail sites like Amazon. But it sits perfectly in that middle ground, with a smart design that offers an effortless way to mount your phone onto your dashboard — without flashy features you might not want.

Better still, the grip the mount has on both your phone and your car seems to be rock solid. So you can be safe in the knowledge that your phone will stay in place for the duration of your journey — however long it might be. You do have to sacrifice a vent for this to work, and it may be a little awkward depending on your car’s vent design.

But if you need your car phone mount to be simple, sturdy and easy, the Spigen OneTap Universal Car Mount is easily one of the best car phone mounts you can buy.