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I ordered an iPhone 13 Mini on launch day, and wanted a magsafe phone mount for my car to replace my old acoustic mount. I've seen good reviews for the ESR Halolock, but 1) I hadn't used that brand before and 2) honestly it's butt-ugly. I searched around and discovered that Anker semi-recently released a magsafe-compatible car mount at the same price point, and since I've had nothing but good experiences with Anker, I decided to try theirs out.
TL;DR: it's good, buy it
Photos here
Video here (Shown with an iPhone 13 Mini case)
The mount is much slimmer and sleeker than I expected, and imo it looks really good. The magnets are super strong - I have no worries about the phone coming off driving over bumps - but it's still really easy to grab the phone from it. I can't test the specific magsafe charging of it, but it qi charges my iPhone 11 just fine (Anker says it can deliver up to 7.5W). I bought an Anker 12V adapter to go with it and it's working great to power the mount and my dashcam.
You might notice in the video that the mount is attached into my CD player - that's actually half of my old mount (I think it was this one). Since both mounts use the same size ball-joint mechanism, I was able to combine them. I haven't tested the vent clip or 3M pad the Anker mount came with, but they both seem like sturdy versions of those types of things.
Anyway, lemme know if there's anything else talk want to know about the mount.
[This is not sponsored in any way, I just wanted to share my thoughts]
I received the new Anker Prime Wireless Car Charger today.
Shipped express for USD $72.74. Yeah, that's expensive, but I wanted a good strong-magnet 25W Qi2.2 charger for the car. One that could hold a Pixel 10 Pro XL, and this seemed alright.
So far, it's pretty good! The Charger has a twist-tight "hook" that extends out and retracts, intended to grab something flat like a vent. I'm going to make some kind of mount for it so it's not stressing the air vent. The clamp mount doesn't appear removable, which is too bad since I'd like to have some simpler mount to attach to.
It includes a 12v Cigarette-lighter DC plug, with USB-C and USB-A outputs, rated 48W. As far as I can tell, the charger itself uses only USB-C 15v 3A.
There is a black no-chip USB-C cable with some adhesive rubber hold-down clips to make it tidy.
The only real surprise here is that the AirCool -- works? It gets genuinely cold, not just fan-cooled. It has to have a Peltier junction or something thermoelectric in there to chill it. It gets BELOW room temperature at the surface, and pretty hot at the heatsink. The fan is quiet -- won't notice it in a car.
The magnets are strong -- bonus. It does grip the phone well right through the case.
However, the cooling doesn't work well through the case. Silicone is a great insulator! The phone gets hot charging and the charger itself stays cold, but I think with no-case the phone would benefit from the cooling more, sucking heat out of the phone backside.
No problems charging the Pixel 10 XL, and I've seen brief spikes over 20W charge current, so it's compatible and working. There is a blue LED on the back of the charger that I don't particularly like in a dark car. No way to turn it off. Too bad about that.
Is it worth $73? There's not much competition in the 25W car space. You have to want this kind of mount, since there's no other option. I'm hoping there are some 3D printed holders for it that bust it off at the ball joint and take over.
I was just wondering if anyone had any luck with a magsafe mount for car with a good charge rate. I have tried an Anker 15w charger which I am returning because the magnets aren't that strong, and the charger barely maintains the battery on my 9 Pro XL when mounted.
I am being lazy here because I want the lazy option - I'm using a PPS USB-C port in my car so it's not the connector that's the issue, and with a cable my phone charges super quickly. The problem I have is the cable runs against my door and after parking I've on multiple occasions, swung my legs into the cable and knocked my phone off the mount like a pleb so I'm hoping for the wireless charging on the magsafe mount to avoid that.