Belkin Car Vent Mount PRO with MagSafe review

The Belkin Car Mount PRO with MagSafe could have been great thanks to support for MagSafe. Because MagSafe is a pretty great invention, even if it does amount to some magnets arranged in a special way. 

It’s great for holding iPhones in place, which means it’s particularly suited to applications in cars. But the Belkin Car Mount PRO's execution falls short, and that’s a real shame.

Belkin Car Vent Mount PRO with MagSafe: Price and availability

Priced at $40, the Belkin Car Vent Mount PRO with MagSafe isn’t expensive as such, but it’s a relatively costly option considering some of the cheaper alternatives on the market — you can probably blame all those magnets for that.

The mount can be ordered directly from Belkin and third party retailers like Amazon and Apple.

Belkin Car Vent Mount PRO with MagSafe: Design and features

The Belkin Car Vent Mount PRO with MagSafe is a robust slab of metal and plastic. It looks impressive when attached to your car vent, although you won’t see it when you have an iPhone attached to it.

The mount itself can rotate for use in portrait and landscape mode and there’s a fancy cable management system around the back that’s great for coiling up extra cable length that you might not need. Note the mount has nowhere to plug that cable, so you’ll be plugging straight into your iPhone.

Belkin Car Vent Mount PRO with MagSafe: Setup

Attaching this mount to a car vent is an exercise in simplicity — pick a vent and slide it on. That said, the grips that hold the mount to the vent are perhaps too sturdy, making it more difficult to attach than I’d have liked. That does mean it won’t slide off by itself, though.

The mount’s grip has slots in both horizontal and vertical orientation — perfect for those with air vents with slats in both directions. That design offers some extra stability, but the mount’s grips have been designed in a way that means it’ll work no matter what vents you have.

Naturally putting your iPhone onto the mount is beyond simple. It’s MagSafe, so all you do is put your iPhone 12 near the mount and it’s almost like the phone is sucked into place.

Belkin Car Vent Mount PRO with MagSafe: Performance

This is a tricky one. I found the Belkin Car Vent Mount PRO with MagSafe to not only have an unwieldy name but an unwieldy design. It looks great and you could probably use a few of them to build a small wall – it’s solid.

But it’s also surprisingly large in terms of the distance from the grips that attach it to the vent, and where your iPhone sits. That distance means you might struggle to get it to stay in place thanks to its weight. Especially when you slap an iPhone 12 Pro Max onto it. The whole thing feels very top-heavy.

Of course I’ve little doubt that this mount would perform admirably in the right car and with the right vents. But in my car, with my admittedly iffy vents, things weren’t great.

One area where performance was non-existent, was the charging. Because it doesn’t charge. I mentioned that earlier, but it’s a bee that’s in my bonnet and I still think anyone using the MagSafe name should be throwing in some sort of charging capabilities.

Belkin Car Vent Mount PRO with MagSafe: Verdict

All of this brings me to the verdict. In my testing, I have to say I wasn’t a fan of this mount, which was a big surprise to me. It’s from a brand I like and has the buzzwords you’d think you might need. I’m just not sure it really works as well as it should.

Belkin could right its wrongs by building the mount out of lighter material and making the grip arm shorter, and adding wireless charging wouldn’t be a bad idea. Maybe that’ll all happen in version 2.0.