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The Best Wireless Charging Phone Mounts for Cars

By Sarah Witman
Updated
Three phone mounts we tested to find the best wireless charging phone mounts for cars, with a smartphone and set of keys.
Photo: Sarah Kobos

If you own a car without smart features such as 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. And if so, keeping your 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, your lap or a cup holder—get the iOttie Easy One Touch Wireless 2. Available in either a dash/windshield mount or a vent/CD-slot mount configuration, it offers fast charging, serious stability, and easy adjustability for most phones.

Everything we recommend

Our pick

This model delivered some of the quickest charging speeds and produced top results for stability in our tests, and it makes mounting and unmounting your phone easy.

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.

Buying Options

Also great

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.

Buying Options

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.

Buying Options

Our pick

This model delivered some of the quickest charging speeds and produced top results for stability in our tests, and it makes mounting and unmounting your phone easy.

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.

Buying Options

In our tests, both the dash-mounted and vent/CD-slot-mounted iOttie Easy One Touch Wireless 2 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.

Also great

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.

Buying Options

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.

Buying Options

If you have an iPhone 12 or later and want to take advantage of your phone’s MagSafe charging feature in the car, the dash/windshield and air-vent versions of OtterBox’s Wireless Charger Mount for MagSafe 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.

Senior staff writer Sarah Witman has been a science writer for nearly a decade, covering a wide variety of topics from particle physics to satellite remote sensing. Since joining Wirecutter in 2017, she has reported on electric vehicle chargers, surge protectors, and more.

Previous versions of this guide were written by Nick Guy and Wirecutter staff writer Thom Dunn. Nick also co-wrote our guide to the best car phone mounts (including both charging and non-charging models) with Roderick Scott, a Wirecutter staff writer who also contributed reporting for this guide.

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 can hold your phone steady in a convenient place while you drive, without blocking your view of the road.

Wireless-charging mounts, such as the models we review in this guide, offer the added convenience of charging compatible phones while you drive—that is, as long as your phone supports Qi, Qi2, or MagSafe. If you don’t need or want to charge your phone wirelessly in your car, we have a separate guide with some non-charging mount options.

Depending on your car’s dash design, as well as your personal preferences, you need to decide on 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.

The better mounts can support a phone in either a horizontal or vertical direction. Photo: Rik Paul

Dash/windshield mounts: This type of mount attaches to the top of the dash or to the windshield, generally with a suction cup and/or an adhesive pad. This position 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.

A wireless charging phone mount attached to a dashboard vent, holding a smartphone showing a map on the screen.
Vent mounts slip onto a slat of your car’s A/C dash vents, but this position can limit the use of the vent, and on some dashes it can block a control or display. Photo: Rik Paul

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, obstruct access to some dash controls, and they tend to be a bit less sturdy than dash mounts.

Tension-grip cradles: This type of mount physically grips your phone to hold it in place. The best cradles expand to fit any size handset, close securely around your phone, and let you install or remove your phone quickly with one hand.

Most wireless-charging mounts use a tension-grip design, which holds a phone with two spring-loaded arms on either side; some models also include an additional support underneath. Photo: Rik Paul

Magnetic: If your phone has MagSafe or Qi2 compatibility, using a magnetic mount is quick and easy. Simply hold your phone near the mount, and when it’s properly aligned the magnet “grabs” it and holds it securely in place. If, on the other hand, you’re using an older iPhone or an Android phone, you need to attach a thin metal plate to the phone or its case so that the magnet has something to hold.

Unlike regular phone mounts for cars, wireless-charging models need to be plugged into the vehicle’s 12-volt outlet to provide juice to the phone, and this could affect where you place it. 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, they don’t charge your phone at the same rate as a USB car charger. Whereas the fastest wired chargers can get recent phones up to about 50% in only half an hour, the models we tested for this guide have less than half that speed.

To find the best car phone mount with wireless charging, we peruse the websites of major retailers such as Amazon and Best Buy to find the most widely available models. From there, we cull our list based on the following criteria:

  • WPC certification: Most smartphones that charge wirelessly use either the Qi or Qi2 standard, both of which were developed by the Wireless Power Consortium, an international trade group consisting of dozens of tech companies. So we give preference to chargers that this group has certified for safety and reliability.
  • Charging speed: In theory, compatible phones and other devices can draw up to 15 watts of power to charge wirelessly, but in actuality most get a charging speed of only about 10 W at best. We focus our search on models rated for 10 W or higher.
  • Power source: We look for chargers that use a standard connection, such as USB-C or Micro-USB, and come bundled with an adapter. Proprietary connectors are more difficult and expensive to replace, and the power of the adapter affects the charging speed.
Close view of the Kenu USB adapter plugged into a car charge port.
We prefer models that receive charging through a separate USB adapter, which gives you more flexibility and is less expensive to replace than a nonremovable plug. Photo: Rik Paul

To test each model, we first confirm that each charger performs as advertised, employing the same method that we use for our wireless portable chargers and power banks guide and other guides to wireless chargers. We then follow the same method that we use for our regular car phone mounts guide to test the usability of the wireless charging mounts. Specifically, we confirm that our picks have the following features:

  • a base that attaches securely to your car and won’t fall, even when you’re traveling over rough roads
  • an easy way to position your phone, so you can see the screen without the phone blocking your view of the road
  • an attachment that holds the phone tightly and securely while still allowing you to change the handset’s positioning
  • an easy way to attach and remove the phone, ideally with one hand
  • the ability to fit and support any size phone, even in a case
Photo: Sarah Kobos

Our pick

This model delivered some of the quickest charging speeds and produced top results for stability in our tests, and it makes mounting and unmounting your phone easy.

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.

Buying Options

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 either a dash-mounted version or an interchangeable vent- or CD-slot-mounted base, it consistently provided some of the quickest charging rates in our tests and proved to be the most stable and adjustable model overall.

It’s WPC-certified. With a certification from the WPC, you can rest assured that the iOttie charging mount meets all standards for safety, compliance, and more.

It charges a phone relatively quickly. Rated for wireless charging at up to 10 W, this model charged a drained iPhone 13 battery to an average of 24% in half an hour and 46% in an hour in our testing.

It comes with useful accessories. This iOttie model includes a 12-volt car charger with an attached Micro-USB adapter, plus an extra USB port that you can use to charge a second device.

It holds your phone steady. In our testing, this mount kept phones of various shapes and sizes (and with different phone cases) firmly in place, even when we went over bumpy cobblestones. To use it, simply squeeze the two levers on the sides until the tension arms extend to their widest point. When you place your phone between them, the arms automatically snap into place.

A third arm offers extra support for the underside of the phone, and a knob on the back of the mount lets you adjust the height of that arm to better align your phone with the wireless-charging mechanism. Also, the Micro-USB input is cleverly positioned on the back of the mount—instead of on the bottom, as on most other models we tested—which makes it easier to tuck away the cable so that it doesn’t drape distractingly over your dashboard.

The Easy One Touch Wireless 2 grabs your phone instantly, providing a secure grip. Video: Michael Hession

It stays securely on your dashboard, air vent, or CD slot. The suction cup on the dash-mounted iOttie model stubbornly stuck to every surface we tested it with, so you won’t need to worry about its flying out the window when you hit a pothole.

The dashboard-mounted version has a 4-inch neck that can extend out to 8 inches if you sit farther back or have a car with a deep, sloping windshield. Both the base and the phone attachment 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.

The other version doesn’t have an extendable neck, but it compensates for that by giving you the choice of two easily adjustable mounting options—attaching to either an air vent or a CD slot—that you can interchange with a simple ball-and-socket joint. In vent-mount mode, it has a rubber-padded clamp that squeezes snugly onto most vent slats, and an additional screw-on nut lets you tighten or loosen that clamp to fit your vehicle. The CD-slot configuration has a flat prong that you can slide into the CD slot (much as you would an actual CD) until it locks into place.

The Easy One Touch Wireless 2 is available in a vent-mounted version … Photo: Michael Hession

Flaws but not dealbreakers

  • On both configurations of this mount, the trigger to activate the arm closure is smaller than on previous versions. This is largely a good thing, as the trigger is now harder to hit 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 phone case.
  • The dash-mounted iOttie model suffers from the same instability issues that plague every phone-mount base we’ve tested with an extendable neck—the longer it extends, the more the plastic tends to wobble. We found this to be especially true when we used it with bigger phones or drove over rough terrain.
  • The included charger has only one USB output, and the attached Micro-USB cable is also limited in that there’s only so far it can stretch. These limitations shouldn’t be a problem in most cars, but if you find that they are—or if you simply want more USB flexibility while you drive—you might want to buy a separate USB car charger.
Photo: Sarah Kobos

Also great

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.

Buying Options

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.

Buying Options

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 Dash & Windshield Mount for MagSafe or Wireless Charger Vent Mount for MagSafe. The phone’s embedded magnets allow you to connect it to the mount and charge it without any extra hardware, making the process as simple as it can be. Although this OtterBox mount is not certified by the WPC, it charges just as fast as our more universal pick from iOttie, as well as any other MagSafe-compatible model we’ve tested.

It adds MagSafe capabilities. The big appeal of MagSafe is its simplicity. As long as you have the right phone, you can slap it onto this mount’s charging head, which holds it securely and starts charging it instantly. Other magnetic chargers require you to use a magnetic sticker or put a metallic plate in between your phone and its case. OtterBox’s mounts also support cases, as long as they have MagSafe magnets built in (as many of our favorite iPhone cases do).

It charges your phone about as quickly as our top pick. In our tests, once mounted, our iPhone 13 charged at roughly the same speed on the OtterBox mount as it did on the iOttie model, 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 model’s speed, none were faster.

The OtterBox Wireless Charger Vent Mount for MagSafe clips securely onto an air vent. Photo: Nick Guy

It comes with a USB-C power adapter and cable. So you don’t have to buy your own, this model includes a 20 W USB-C charger with a detachable cable. It has only one port, though, so if you need to charge multiple devices at once, you can use the provided cable with any multiport USB-C charger rated for 20 W or higher output.

It’s versatile and easy to install. The two versions of the OtterBox mount 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 simply consists of the charging head and a strong, spring-loaded clip that grasps the slats.

The dangling power cable might annoy you, but it gets the job done. We wish OtterBox had come up with a more elegant solution to manage this mount’s USB-C charging cable. Because it plugs into the bottom of the charging head, it naturally dangles in front of a car’s radio and climate controls. But the same is true of most models we tested.

If you’d prefer electronic auto-clamping arms over our top pick’s spring-loaded tension arms: Get the iOttie Auto Sense. Like our top pick, this model is available in versions that mount to a dashboard or a windshield or to an air vent or a CD slot.

It has all the same features we love in the iOttie Easy One Touch Wireless 2, but instead of pushing the phone against the mount to trigger the tension arms, you tap a pair of buttons on the sides of the Auto Sense to electronically extend the arms. Once you’ve placed your phone in the mount, the arms automatically close around it and hold it securely in place.

Not everyone needs that capability, but if you can find the Auto Sense for the same price or less than our top pick, it’s a great alternative.

If you want a MagSafe option that takes up less space than our picks but doesn’t come with its own charger or a reusable dash mount: Get the ESR HaloLock Magnetic Wireless Car Charger. It charges as quickly as our picks, has a slightly smaller footprint than those models, and comes with dual attachments to mount on either an air vent or a dashboard or windshield. It’s also one of the few models we’ve tested with a third prong to hold the vent-mounting attachment steady.

However, if you want to mount it to a dashboard or windshield, use extra care: Since it doesn’t use a suction cup or gel-based adhesive as most dash-mounting models do, you can apply it to an area only once. Also, it doesn’t come with a USB car charger, so you have to shell out for one separately.

If your dashboard is relatively flat, and you want a MagSafe option with an especially elegant-looking neck: Get the Anker 613 Magnetic Wireless Charger (MagGo). Like the dash-mounted versions of our picks, this model has a long, adjustable neck (though unlike our picks it can’t be reconfigured to mount on an air vent or CD slot) and keeps phones steady during travel on bumpy terrain. It isn’t WPC-certified, but it supports wireless-charging speeds up to 7.5 W, and it comes with a two-port (one USB-A and one USB-C) power adapter, a charging cable, and handy cable-management clips.

Its round, magnetic head is small and inconspicuous compared with those on many other models we tested. In addition, it can tilt toward the driver or passenger, and it even glows in the dark so that you can easily align your phone at night. The neck is adjustable up to 134 degrees, and its curvy silhouette gives it an extra-stylish flair.

Its biggest downside is the suction cup—in our testing it held firmly on most surfaces, but you might have trouble installing it if your vehicle’s dashboard is angled or has an uneven texture.

If you want a more modular MagSafe setup: Consider Mophie’s Snap+ Wireless Charging Vent Mount. In our tests, it charged more slowly than our also-great pick from OtterBox, hitting 15% after half an hour and 30% after an hour, and it comes only in a vent configuration.

But it’s the only model we tested with a charging puck that you can remove from the mount for use outside your car, as well as the only one that includes magnetic ring adapters for attaching older or non-Apple phones.

A slew of new devices with Qi2 wireless-charging capabilities were announced in late 2023 and at the CES trade show in January 2024. Qi2 uses rings of magnets to ensure easy alignment between phone and charger, but unlike MagSafe it’s not Apple-exclusive. It allows any compatible device to charge at up to 15 W, twice as fast as with the original Qi specification.

We plan to test the following models against our current picks this spring, along with other Qi2-compatible car phone mounts that are likely to launch later in the year.

This is not a comprehensive list of all wireless-charging car phone mounts we have tested. We have removed any models that have been discontinued or that no longer meet our criteria.

The Belkin Boost Up Wireless Charging Vent Mount 10W is one of the fastest chargers we’ve tested, but we found the spring-loaded side arms difficult to open when attaching a phone or removing it from the mount. Also, the mount is permanently attached to its charger, limiting the potential charging speed.

iOttie’s iTap Wireless 2 Magnetic 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, though 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. iOttie has discontinued the CD-slot and dash-mount versions, but company representatives told us that the vent-mount model will remain available.

MagSafe

Peak Design’s Charging Car Mount, Satechi’s Magnetic Wireless Car Charger, and Spigen’s OneTap Pro Wireless Magnetic Car Charger Air Vent all charged the iPhone 13 slower than our also-great pick from OtterBox, reaching only about 30% after an hour compared with the OtterBox model’s result of 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 Wireless Air Vent Mount, which eliminated it from contention.

This article was edited by Ben Keough and Erica Ogg.

Meet your guide

Sarah Witman

Sarah Witman is a senior staff writer who reports on powering and charging technology for Wirecutter. She previously worked as a writer, editor, and fact checker for several science magazines. Though she researches and tests chargers for a living, her phone battery is usually low.

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