We independently review everything we recommend. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more›
We’ve added a couple of models announced at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to What to look forward to. We’ll test them as soon as we can, and update this guide with our thoughts. Wireless Charger OEM Manufacturer
If you own a car without Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, you probably rely on your phone’s screen for everything from turn-by-turn directions to music selection to hands-free calls, so keeping the phone visible and juiced up while you’re on the road is crucial. To wirelessly charge your phone in a car while also keeping it in a place that’s safer and more convenient than, say, a cup holder, get the iOttie Easy One Touch Wireless 2. Available in a dash/windshield mount or a vent/CD-slot mount, it offers fast charging, serious stability, and easy adjustability. If you have an iPhone 12 or later, we recommend the OtterBox Wireless Charger Dash & Windshield Mount for MagSafe (or the vent-mounted version), which is even easier to use and charges just as fast.
This model delivered some of the quickest charging speeds, earned top results for stability, and makes it easy to mount and unmount your phone.
This is the sturdiest vent-mounted model we tested, with fast charging speeds, a firm grip, and a quick way to attach and remove your phone.
In our tests, both the dash-mounted and vent/CD-slot-mounted iOttie models were among the quickest at charging our phones. The spring-loaded tension arms made attaching or removing a phone of any size very simple and held phones steady while we drove. And both models offer a wide range of adjustability for positioning your phone where you can readily see it, regardless of the vehicle.
This MagSafe mount is super simple to connect to, charges as fast as any other wireless mount, and includes all the components you need in the box.
If you prefer an air-vent mount, this variant uses the same charging head as the dash/windshield version, so you get the same easy connection and fast speeds.
May be out of stock
If you have an iPhone 12 or later and want to take advantage of your phone’s MagSafe charging feature in the car, OtterBox’s dash/windshield and vent mounts are the best options. Like any MagSafe mount, they’re dead simple to use because they don’t require any extra plates or stickers to make a magnetic connection. They charge an iPhone as fast as any other wireless car mount and come with everything you need in the box, including a 20-watt USB-C power adapter.
This model delivered some of the quickest charging speeds, earned top results for stability, and makes it easy to mount and unmount your phone.
This is the sturdiest vent-mounted model we tested, with fast charging speeds, a firm grip, and a quick way to attach and remove your phone.
This MagSafe mount is super simple to connect to, charges as fast as any other wireless mount, and includes all the components you need in the box.
If you prefer an air-vent mount, this variant uses the same charging head as the dash/windshield version, so you get the same easy connection and fast speeds.
May be out of stock
Nick Guy is a longtime Wirecutter staffer who has researched and tested hundreds of car mounts. He’s also written guides to desktop Qi chargers, standard car phone mounts (without wireless charging), multiport USB wall chargers, USB car chargers, and more. Prior to joining Wirecutter, Nick spent three years as the accessories editor at iLounge, where he reviewed more than 1,000 products, including early wireless-charging devices.
Thom Dunn, who wrote an earlier version of this guide, is a Wirecutter staffer who has also written about Bluetooth car kits, Google Assistant–compatible devices, and standard car phone mounts. His work has also appeared in Upworthy, Vice, and HuffPost, as well as in publications for institutions such as MIT.
If you want to use your smartphone while driving—to get directions, play music, or take phone calls—it’s much easier and safer to have it mounted where you can easily see and tap the screen, without taking your eyes off the road for too long. A good smartphone car mount will hold your phone steady in a convenient place while you drive—without blocking your view of the road—and is much safer than, say, holding a phone in your hand or having to look down at a cup holder or dash bin. Wireless-charging mounts, like the ones we review in this guide, offer the added convenience of charging Qi-compatible phones while you drive, including Apple’s MagSafe-equipped iPhones.
Depending on your car’s dash design, as well as your personal preferences, you’ll need to decide two things: whether to get a dash/windshield mount or a vent mount, and whether to get a tension-grip cradle or a magnetic grip for the phone.
Dash/windshield mounts: This type of mount attaches to the windshield or the top of the dash, generally with a suction cup and/or an adhesive pad. This places your phone close to your normal line of sight while you’re driving and doesn’t block your view of, or access to, the dashboard and its controls. Keep in mind that some states have laws about where you’re allowed to place devices on the windshield.
Vent mounts: These models slip onto the slats of your car’s climate-control air vents. However, they can block air from the vent or, depending on the car, access to some dash controls. Vent mounts tend to be a bit less sturdy than dash mounts, although it depends on the combination of car, mount, and phone. Sometimes they can weigh down the slats, too, which can affect your view of the screen. And we’ve heard a few reports of vent mounts breaking a vent’s slats, although we’ve never encountered this problem.
Tension-grip cradles: This type of mount physically grips your phone to hold it in place, usually with arms that extend and contract from the side. Some of them also have a third arm extending from the bottom for added support. The best cradles expand to fit any size handset, close securely around your phone, and let you install or remove a phone quickly with one hand.
Magnetic: Compared with using a tension-grip design, attaching or removing your phone from a magnetic mount is even quicker and easier. You just hold your phone near the mount, and when it’s properly aligned, the magnet will “grab” it and hold it in place. Similarly, you simply pull the phone off to remove it. And don’t worry: These magnets won’t hurt your phone, and they’re often just as stable and secure as a tension-arm design. The best execution of this style is Apple’s MagSafe system on the iPhone 12 and later, which can charge at up to 15 watts (although there are no car mount chargers that support that speed as of this writing).
If you’re using an older iPhone or an Android phone, you do need to attach a thin metal plate to the phone or its case (inside or outside), so the magnet has something to hold on to. To align with the magnets in conventional car phone mounts (without wireless charging), the plate is typically placed in the center of the phone’s rear side. But this location can interfere with wireless chargers. That’s why the few available wireless-charging magnetic mounts require the magnets—and the metal plate(s)—to be located near the top and/or bottom of the phone.
Other considerations: Unlike regular phone mounts for cars, wireless-charging models need to be plugged into a vehicle’s 12-volt outlet (aka cigarette lighter) to provide juice to the phone, and this could affect where you place it. For most cars, a mount in the center area of the dash would be closer to the outlet, while one mounted in the left corner of the dash or windshield—an otherwise popular location—would mean draping the cord over the steering column or routing it under the dash (if it’s long enough). Alternatively, you could hard-wire the mount to the car’s fuse box, either by doing it yourself (if you’re comfortable enough with car wiring) or by taking the vehicle to a car-audio installer.
Although wireless-charging mounts are handy, don’t expect them to charge your phone at the same rate as a wired charger. The fastest wired chargers can get recent phones up to about 50% in only half an hour, while the models we tested here have less than half that speed. (See our guide to the best USB car charger.)
Any good car phone mount needs to do its basic job well. This includes having:
Also, the models we considered for this guide needed to efficiently charge compatible phones through a certified Qi wireless system (except for the MagSafe models, none of which are certified by Apple). So in addition to testing for the above criteria (using the same method as for our regular car phone mounts guide), we also used the same basic criteria for charging speeds and standards certifications that we used in our guides to Qi wireless chargers and wireless-charging power banks:
To get a feel for how each model worked with different-size phones, we tested each of the non-MagSafe mounts with a 4-inch iPhone SE (weighing about 4 ounces), a 4.7-inch iPhone 8 (about 5.2 ounces), and a 6.5-inch iPhone XS Max (about 7.3 ounces). We spent about eight hours over three days driving our 2006 Volkswagen Jetta over freeways, paved suburban thoroughfares, unpaved roads, and cobblestone streets, rotating each phone through each mount and observing the stability, fit, and general usability for every combination. We evaluated how easy it was to set up the mount on the dash or windshield or clip onto the air vent, attach or remove a phone, and adjust the mount in order to best position the screen. We also evaluated whether the phone remained steady during the drive and whether we could easily read the screen, whether the tension arms or magnet attachment held the phone securely over rough terrain, and how well the mount stayed attached to the car with different phones and driving conditions.
In 2022, we began testing MagSafe models with very similar procedures. For this most recent round, we tested each MagSafe mount with a 5.4-inch iPhone 13 mini (4.97 ounces), a 6.1-inch iPhone 13 Pro (7.19 ounces), and a 6.7-inch iPhone 13 Pro Max (8.46 ounces) while driving a 2011 Toyota RAV4.
We also tested their charging capabilities using an AC-to-DC converter that provided the same power they would draw from a car. We placed a fully drained iPhone 13 on a mount to charge, recording the battery percentage after a half hour and a full hour.
This model delivered some of the quickest charging speeds, earned top results for stability, and makes it easy to mount and unmount your phone.
This is the sturdiest vent-mounted model we tested, with fast charging speeds, a firm grip, and a quick way to attach and remove your phone.
The iOttie Easy One Touch Wireless 2 offers the best combination of fast charging speeds, ease of use, and sturdy, reliable mounting for the widest variety of phones. Available in a dash-mounted model or an interchangeable vent/CD-slot-mounted base, the Easy One Touch Wireless 2 consistently provided some of the quickest charging rates, and in our tests it proved to be the most stable and adjustable overall.
Both of these WPC-certified models come with a 12-volt car charger with an attached Micro-USB adapter that can deliver high-speed charging (up to 10 watts), and an extra port that you can use as you’d like. In our tests, the iOttie mounts charged a drained iPhone 13 battery to an average of 24% in half an hour and 46% in an hour, and they worked well even with the phone in a thin case. iOttie was also clever enough to position the Micro-USB input on the back of the mount—instead of on the bottom, like most other models we tested—which makes it easier to tuck away the cable so it doesn’t drape distractingly over your dashboard.
To operate the tension arms on the Easy One Touch Wireless 2, all you have to do is squeeze the two levers on the sides underneath the arms. This will cause the tension arms to extend to their widest point. When you place the phone between them and press it against the mount, it triggers a touch-sensitive button that snaps the arms back into place around your phone. In our experience, this was easy and convenient, and we found that they gripped a small iPhone 13 mini as tightly as they did a larger iPhone 13 Pro Max, even over bumpy cobblestones. Although some charging mounts we tested had only these two side arms, the iOtties also have an extra support for the underside of the phone. A knob on the back of the mount lets you adjust the height of this bottom saddle to ensure that your phone is aligned with the wireless-charging mechanism.
The suction cup on the dash-mounted iOttie stuck almost stubbornly on every surface that we tested, so you won’t need to worry about your phone mount flying out the window when you hit a pothole. This version has a 4-inch neck that can extend out to 8 inches, so you can position your phone closer to you, if needed. This is particularly handy if you tend to sit farther back from the dash or have a car with a deep, sloping windshield. Both the base and the attachment that holds the phone can rotate 360 degrees, and the extendable neck can rotate in an arc of 270 degrees, offering a wide range of options for setup and positioning.
Although the vent/CD-slot-mounted iOttie doesn’t have the same extendable neck as the dash-mounted model, it compensates with the choice of two easily adjustable mounting options. Both the CD base and vent base attach to the back of the phone mount with a simple screw-on ball joint that’s easy to swap out to fit your and your car’s needs. In vent-mount mode, the iOttie has a rubber-padded clamp that should squeeze snugly over most car vent slats; an additional screw-on nut allows you to tighten or loosen this clamp to fit your vehicle. The clamp and nut are small enough to sit flush against the vents in several different cars, which helps to keep your phone steady over a variety of terrains. This base also extends your phone out about an inch and a half from the vent. The CD-mounted base is similarly simple to slide into the CD slot and lock into place, and it gives you an extra 2 inches of space from your otherwise-ignored CD player.
On both the dash- and vent/CD-slot-mounted iOtties, the trigger to activate the Easy One Touch arm closure is smaller than that on the previous versions. This is largely a good thing, as it makes it harder to trigger accidentally. But it sometimes means that the arms don’t close when you want or expect them to, especially if you have a softer or shock-absorbent case.
The dash-mounted iOttie suffers from the same instability issues that plague every phone-mount base we’ve tested with an extendable neck—that is to say, the longer it extends, the more the plastic tends to wobble (especially with a bigger phone or over rough terrain).
The included charger has only one USB output, and the attached Micro-USB cable means you’re also limited in how far the cable can stretch. This shouldn’t be a problem in most cars, but if it is—or if you want more USB flexibility while you drive—you might want to buy a separate USB car charger (we recommend one with a “Quick Charge” port to ensure the best charging speeds, since not every USB output charges at the same rate).
This MagSafe mount is super simple to connect to, charges as fast as any other wireless mount, and includes all the components you need in the box.
If you prefer an air-vent mount, this variant uses the same charging head as the dash/windshield version, so you get the same easy connection and fast speeds.
May be out of stock
If you have an iPhone 12 or later, you should take advantage of its MagSafe mounting and charging feature in your car with OtterBox’s Wireless Charger Vent Mount for MagSafe or Wireless Charger Dash & Windshield Mount for MagSafe. The phone’s embedded magnets allow you to connect to the mount and charge without any extra hardware, making the process as simple as it can be. The OtterBox models charge just as fast as our more universal pick from iOttie, as well as any other MagSafe-compatible model we tested. They also come with the necessary USB-C charger, which isn’t always the case with the competition.
The big appeal of MagSafe is its simplicity. As long as you have the right phone, you can slap it onto the charging head, which will hold it securely and start charging it instantly. Other magnetic chargers require you to put a metallic plate in between your phone and its case, or use a magnetic sticker. OtterBox’s mounts also support cases, as long as they have MagSafe magnets built in (as many of our favorite iPhone cases do).
Once mounted, the iPhone 13 charged at roughly the same speed on the OtterBox as it did on the iOttie, going from empty to 22% in half an hour and 48% in an hour. Most of the MagSafe-compatible charging mounts we tested were about 40% slower, and while a handful matched the OtterBox’s speed, none were faster.
Not every wireless-charging car mount comes with a power adapter in the box, but these OtterBox mounts do, meaning you don’t have to buy your own. In this case, it’s a 20-watt USB-C charger with a detachable cable. If you do need to charge multiple devices at once, you can instead use the provided cable with any 20-watt or higher multiport USB-C charger.
Both OtterBox mounts use the same charging head, a black oval with a white circle indicating the magnet’s location. Otherwise, they look similar to their iOttie counterparts. The dash/windshield model pairs an articulating arm with a suction-cup base, allowing you to find the best position in your car, while the vent version is simply the charging head with a strong, spring-loaded clip that grasps the slats.
We do have some quibbles with the design. The iPhone’s MagSafe array is made up of the magnetic circle (which also provides the wireless power) and the vertical line beneath it (used for alignment and extra support). The OtterBox mounting head uses only the circle, not the line, so it’s not as secure as it potentially could be—but the other MagSafe chargers we tested lacked the line, too. We also wish OtterBox had come up with a more elegant solution to manage the USB-C charging cable. It plugs into the bottom of the charging head, meaning it will naturally dangle in front of your car’s radio and climate controls. But again, this is a common design flaw in the category.
If you don’t like dealing with the spring-loaded tension arms on the iOttie Easy One Touch Wireless 2, the company makes a similar phone mount with electronic auto-clamping arms for just $10 more. Like our top pick, the iOttie Auto Sense Wireless Charging Car Mount is available in dash- or vent/CD-slot-mounted options, which offer all the same features as their Easy One Touch counterparts. But instead of having to push the phone against the mount to trigger the tension arms and then manually press in the release arms to remove your phone, the Auto Sense models have a pair of buttons near the bottom on the sides of the mount. All you have to do is tap these buttons, and the automated electronic arms extend outward; then, once you’ve placed your phone in the mount, the arms automatically close around the phone again, holding it securely in place.
If you want a more modular MagSafe setup, consider Mophie’s Snap+ Wireless Vent Mount. It charges more slowly than the OtterBox, hitting 15% after half an hour and 30% after an hour, and it comes in only a vent configuration. But it’s the only model we tested with a charging puck that can be removed from the mount so you can use it outside of your car, as well as the only one that includes magnetic ring adapters so you can attach older, or non-Apple, phones.
iOttie teased two new models at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 2023 that we plan to test as soon as they become available. The company hasn’t released pricing or launch dates yet, but says the Velox Elite lineup will add MagSafe certification and active-cooling capabilities to its existing Velox Magnetic Wireless Dash & Windshield Mount and Velox Magnetic Wireless Air Vent Mount models (which cost $60 and $55, respectively, at this writing). iOttie says the addition of MagSafe will allow for a better connection between mount and phone, ensuring more efficient and faster charging, while the active cooling (a small fan on the back of the mount) will help keep the phone from overheating and malfunctioning mid-trip.
The Belkin Boost Up Wireless Charging Vent Mount 10W was the second-fastest charger we tested in 2020. However, the spring-loaded side arms are stubborn and difficult to open—great for holding your phone steady on the road, but not for attaching or removing it from the mount. We also didn’t like that the mount is permanently attached to its own plug. This made it difficult to put away or use without plugging in, and it also limited the potential charging speed, which was annoying.
In 2020 we also tested the Cegar Magnetic Wireless Car Charger, which uses an interesting (and attractive-looking) curly, X-shaped sticker to help you position the magnets so that they don’t interfere with the charging mechanism. The magnets were remarkably strong, and we thought this looked even nicer than the standard strip of metal used by other magnetic phone mounts. Too bad the Cegar never actually charged our phone, even though the charging lights were clearly lit.
iOttie’s iTap 2 Magnetic Wireless Charging Mount, the wireless-charging version of our favorite standard car phone mount, is a good choice if you prefer the ease and convenience of a magnetic car phone mount but don’t have an iPhone with MagSafe. Like most non-MagSafe magnetic mounts, the iTap 2 requires you to stick a very strong magnet to the back of your phone or phone case (you may be able to get away with slipping the magnet between your phone and the inside of your case, depending on what kind of case you have). The CD-slot and dash-mount versions have been discontinued, but iOttie told us the vent-mount model will remain available.
The Kenu Airframe Wireless Qi and Kenu Airbase Wireless Qi used to be our top picks, and although we still think they’re good and reliable, they just don’t charge as quickly as the newer models. The same goes for Scosche’s MCQVP-XTET MagicMount Charge3 and MPQ2WD-XTSP1 MagicMount Pro Charge models—they used to be our pick for magnet-attached wireless-charging mounts, but they can’t compete with the newer iOttie models.
ESR’s HaloLock Magnetic Wireless Car Charger Mount is available in both air-vent and dash/windshield models, and it charges as fast as the OtterBox. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with a USB car charger, so you have to provide your own, bringing the price in line with what you’d pay for our MagSafe pick. The ESR also looks less refined.
Anker’s 613 Magnetic Wireless Charger (MagGo) is tied for the dubious honor of being the most expensive wireless-charging car mount we’ve tested. While it matches the OtterBox in speed, we don’t think it’s worth the $30 premium, and there’s no vent-mount option for those who prefer it.
Spigen’s OneTap Pro Wireless Magnetic Car Charger Air Vent, Satechi’s Magnetic Wireless Charger, and Peak Design’s Car Mount all charged the iPhone 13 slower than our also-great pick, reaching only about 30% after an hour compared with the OtterBox’s nearly 50%. None of them come with a USB car charger, either.
We heard a terrible coil whine from two separate units of iOttie’s Velox Magnetic Wireless Charging Car Mount, which eliminated it from contention.
This article was edited by Ben Keough and Erica Ogg.
Michael Crider, It’s Dead Simple To Add Wireless Charging To Your Car, ReviewGeek, July 10, 2018
Nicole Van Zanten, These are the Best Wireless Phone Charging Car Mounts, Ideaing, March 25, 2019
Eric Ravenscraft, The Best Smartphone Car Docks That Are Legal In Your State, The Inventory, January 14, 2019
The Best Car Phone Holders for Uber and Lyft Drivers, Ridester, December 7, 2018
Thom Dunn is an associate staff writer at Wirecutter reporting on HVAC and other home improvement topics. Sometimes his curiosity gets the best of him, such as when he plugged a space heater and a Marshall guitar amp into the same power strip. Pro tip: Don’t do that.
Nick Guy is a former senior staff writer covering Apple and accessories at Wirecutter. He has been reviewing iPhones, iPads, and related tech since 2011—and stopped counting after he tested his 1,000th case. It’s impossible for him not to mentally catalog any case he sees. He once had the bright idea to build and burn down a room to test fireproof safes.
by Thom Dunn and Nick Guy
After researching hundreds of car phone mounts and testing more than 50 models on the road, we’ve made the iOttie iTap Magnetic 2 our top pick.
The Spotify Car Thing didn’t solve the major problems I had with listening to music in my car. Here’s the device to get instead.
In this week's newsletter: Waiting for your phone to charge really shouldn’t take that long.
by Rik Paul and Eric C. Evarts
The Pioneer AVH-W4500NEX is the best car stereo for people who want to add Apple CarPlay or Android Auto so they can use their smartphones in their vehicles.
Wireless Charger Supplier Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time).