I wanted a windshield mount for the iPhone to use in my F-350 and do not need bluetooth or FM transmitter. I want to use it with a GPS app and also have the phone easily reachable for calls. All the generic holders I have looked at were ugly and too bulky looking. Plus, I want one that lets me keep my case on my iPhone 3gs while it is in the mount. The price looked good for the Kensington Amplified mount and it appeared to meet my needs. Overall, the Kensington mount is ok, but not great.
The good:
Easy to mount the iPhone in the holder, with or without a case on the phone
Phone seems very secure in the mount, not likely to fall out
Suction cup is strong, adheres to windshield very well
Sound amplification is pretty good when not using a case on the iPhone
Can easily position phone in portrait or landscape mode
Keeps iPhone at my fingertips while driving, easy to answer a call and use speakerphone
The bad:
Length of the flexible arm is a bit too long.
The phone bounces while driving making it hard to read GPS screens. This is due to the long flexible arm and probably made worse in my truck (F-350 4x4) due to the stiff suspension. May not be a problem in a car with a softer ride.
Sound is not amplified very well with a case on the iPhone because there is a bit of a gap left between the iPhone speaker and the rubber base on the mount. Kensington includes different rubber pieces to use with a bare iPhone and iPhone cases, but they do not get a good seal with a case on. I have tried 4 different cases, the Griffin Reveal had the least amplification of them all. The inCase slider and a silicone case had a better seal and therefore better amplification.
Only sound from the left speaker is channeled through the sound chamber. The part of the mount directly under the right speaker is just a hole with a piece of black foam padding.
Many car charger connectors are a bit too big to fit in the gap at the bottom of the mount for charging the iPhone while driving. The connector must be very small, like the connector on the USB cable that came from Apple with the iPhone. My aftermarket car charger does not fit.
The two main things that keeps this from being the perfect windshield mount is the bounciness of the phone while driving and lack of sound amplification when using a case, in particular the Griffin Reveal case, since that is my favorite case at the moment. Kensington K66627US Windshield Car Mount with Sound Amplified Cradle for iPhone (Black)
This is really a magnificent product. I had low expectations for it, but it's really remarkable.
The windshield mount has a quality suction like a GPS device so that it doesn't fall off the window. Additionally, it's extremely easy to mount this to your air conditioning vent. In my car, this was a perfect fit and places my iPhone in a great location.
When the iPhone is mounted it can be swiveled to landscape mode, and there is a nifty little sound amplifier built in which actually works. It's also very easy to dock and undock the iPhone and it can easily accommodate it with or without a case. Finally if you connect power to the device there is plenty of room at the bottom to have the charging cable attached.
My only complaint is that there aren't really any instructions or manual for this gizmo.
I was considering getting the TomTom GPS mount for my car, but this is a far better value IMHO.
I was looking for a mount for my iphone that did two major things - gave me full flexibility as to the position of the phone, and was simple to get the phone in and out of, even with a case. The Kensington Windshield mount meets both of these goals very well. The windshield mount sticks very securely; it has yet to fall off. The suction cup included with my TomTom navigation unit fell off several times during every trip, so this is a big improvement. Inserting the phone and removing it is dead simple - it's so easy that I am using it even for short trips when I'm not listening to music or using the navigation as taking phone calls or glancing at alerts is much easier. As already noted, the mount comes with several different rubber inserts for the bottom of the phone to aid in the amplification. I was able to find one set that fit my case fairly well, and the amplification works decently. I have no trouble hearing the phone over the radio. One niggle is that those rubber mounts don't seem too secure and I've nearly knocked them out a couple of times while putting the phone in. If you take a little bit of care in how you do this, it's not much of an issue, but it could be improved. Getting the phone out is almost too easy. I've actually twisted it out of the holder once or twice while fumbling with the volume buttons on the phone.
The flexible arm is very long. This works well for me because it's mounted on the windshield and it places the phone almost flush with the front of the dashboard of the car, making it easy to read and to reach. If you plan on mounting it on your dashboard though it could be excessively tall. I tried the vent mount on both of our vehicles and could not get it to be adequately secure in either one. That's ok with me because I didn't buy it intending to use it that way, but if you are, be aware that it may or may not work for you.
The fully flexible arm allows you to place the phone in any position you like, and it rotates 90 degrees left and right. The arm is only marginally stiff enough, but even in my car with stiff suspension it is stable enough to read. It seems a little better with the phone in landscape mode. Overall it would be an improvement if the arm were marginally stiffer. A nice detail is that the holder is designed to hold your charging cable when not in use. While it won't hold the oversized dock connector in my car, it still has plenty of room to connect to the phone itself.
Overall this is a great product that exceeds my expectations and I am about to order a second one for our other car. - Iphone 3g - Dash Mount - Car Mount - Iphone'
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