The 10 Best Car Tablet Mounts
This wiki has been updated 33 times since it was first published in October of 2015. If you don't have an advanced GPS system installed in your car, there's no need to go to the expense of having one put in. One of these tablet mounts will allow you to display your mobile device for convenient navigation, and they'll also enable passengers to watch videos or surf the web while you drive. They're great for listening to Internet radio stations and podcasts, too. When users buy our independently chosen editorial choices, we may earn commissions to help fund the Wiki.
1. AboveTek Stand
2. TFY Universal
3. Apps2Car Lift
Editor's Notes
November 05, 2020:
We opted to remove our previous favorite, the Joy Factory Unite, due to concerns about its poor grip and consistently loosening parts. We believe that the AboveTek Stand is a more budget-friendly option that provides a far more stable docking station for a wide range of devices. Whether you're keeping it your car, or placing it on your desk at home, it doesn't slide around or fall over.
As the DigitlMobile Pro is currently unavailable, we've added the Tryone Stretchable to our list instead. This tablet mount is suitable for professional Uber or Lyft drivers looking to impress their ride-sharing customers. It's also been noted to be so simple to install that even kids can attach it to a headrest by themselves. Plus, its 10-inch extendable arm allows users to position their screen in-between the two front seats of a car, so everyone in the backseat can watch movies together.
May 24, 2019:
Eliminated the Jarv Holder and Vogel’s 1020 from the list. The former was a victim of several complaints regarding its lack of flexibility and durability — it tends to break down quickly, and even while it’s functional, it’s quite difficult to adjust. The latter did not provide the suction and holding power it advertises.
Uber and Lyft drivers have expressed significant satisfaction with the DigitlMobile Pro, one of the new additions to the list. They really value its stability and the ease with which the tablet can be secured and released from the mount. Users have noted that its rigidity makes it somewhat difficult to adjust, but the security it provides makes up for that minor concern. Also added the Apps2Car Lift, which features a reliable suction cup mounting mechanism and gives you the ability to swivel and tilt the device with minimal resistance.
The TFY Universal seems to have it all: it accommodates a variety of devices with or without cases, holds tablets securely with a well-designed cradle and a strong Velcro connection, and works well on airplane seats for easy in-flight use. We moved it up in the rankings for these reasons.
Special Honors
Kenu Airvue As long as your car, truck or SUV features two vertical bars supporting the headrests, this is a dependable option for entertaining restless youngsters in the backseat. Its sleek, minimalist design looks sharp and modern, and it’s backed by a lifetime warranty. kenu.com
Girafus Relax H3 Whereas some units make it difficult for all the backseat passengers to enjoy a quality view, the Grafus Relax H3 installs directly between the two front seats in a centralized location. This way, no one feels left out. You can mount it and remove it in less than a minute, too. girafus.com
Cotytech Mounts This line of models from Cotytech puts plenty of build styles at your disposal, including windshield and cupholder mounting options with varying degrees of tilting and rotation capabilities. They’re suitable for tablets, smartphones, laptops and even cameras. cotytech.com
4. Tryone Stretchable
5. Arkon Seat Rail
6. Mobotron Standard
7. Satechi Universal
8. iKross Kit
9. Macally Headrest
10. Apps2Car 2 in 1
Dangerous Screens
Not only do tablets provide a much larger interface for music and navigation, they also make texting so inconvenient as to keep the driver from bothering with it.
According to the national safety council, approximately 1.6 million accidents occur each year due to drivers distracted by cell phones. We're not only talking about texting here, either. Cell phone distraction involves everything from texting and talking, to navigating and operating music players.
When it comes down to it, the danger presented by using a cell phone while driving results from a cumulative time spent not looking at the road, and even with some of the bigger cell phones on the market these days, small screen size means more time squinting down at details and less time focused on the traffic pattern.
As a result, a lot of drivers understandably prefer to use tablets in the car in place of their cell phones. Not only do tablets provide a much larger interface for music and navigation, they also make texting so inconvenient as to keep the driver from bothering with it.
The big problem with tablets, though, is their bigness. They're incredibly difficult to manipulate with one hand, making driving with a tablet a lot more dangerous than driving with a phone. Unless, of course, you have a good mount for your tablet.
The car tablet mounts on our list are designed to work with a variety of tablet sizes, given their spring-loaded holsters, and each hooks into place by means of suction or leverage. The result is a large, well-placed interactive system for your vehicle that should help keep you safe from yourself.
It's All In How You Mount It
Sometimes I go through my days pretending that I'm left-handed. The world is such a different place for lefties. At every turn they're confronted with pieces of technology that are designed and manufactured with the majority demographic of right-handed individuals in mind.
At every turn they're confronted with pieces of technology that are designed and manufactured with the majority demographic of right-handed individuals in mind.
Everything from scissors to watches, from can openers to all the controls of a car are made for manipulation with the right hand. Imagine a left-handed person trying to operate a car's navigation screen that's built into the center console. Their only real option is to use their right hand. The car tablet mounts on this list provide a solution, for the most part, and that solution–as so much of your decision among these holders–lives and dies in the method by which you mount them.
Take our poor lefty for example. If he buys the tablet mount that uses his cup holder for tablet placement and security, he runs into the same conundrum he faces against a center console. This style works fine for a righty, and fortunately for our left-handed friend, it's not the only sort of mount we feature.
The other two styles work by leverage or by suction. Leverage-based tablet mounts use either the slots of your air vents as mounting points, or they use the stems of your head rest to face the tablet toward the back seat. Presumably, there are children back there whom you aim to distract for the duration of the ride.
While leverage-based mounts provide you with a lot of placement options, they can add unhealthy amounts of weight to the simple plastic vents, possibly enough to break them. They also have a greater tenancy to slip out of place from the natural vibrations of the car.
Suction-based mounts provide better security against slippage, but they limit your mounting positions to the front of the car. What's more, if you have an intensely sloping windshield like the ones you can find on late model Honda Civics, your mounting angles are significantly reduced.
Both leverage and suction mounts give you options to place your tablet to the left of the steering wheel, though, so no matter what hand you call your dominant one, you'll have a space from which to work.
Calling all Cars
I remember the hullabaloo leading up to the announcement of the iPad. It seemed through that whole late winter in early 2010 as though Apple was strategically leaking bits of information about their big announcement. By the time of the actual unveiling, the only thing up in the air was exactly what the company would call the device. Plenty of people thought the name chosen was a ridiculous one, but it appears as though Apple got the last laugh.
These weren't cell phones, per se, but they allowed a select number of users the ability to make calls from the comfort of their vehicles.
This release marked the dawn of the tablet age, and a market that hadn't existed before, that hadn't even been identified before, suddenly had to play catch up in the accessory department. By the time third-party manufacturers released enough cases, mounts, styluses, and supports for the first generation iPads, Apple was onto smaller, thinner versions, and their competition had developed imitation machines in every color of the rainbow.
Cell phone mounts of one kind or another have been around since the earliest car phones of the 1940s and 50s. These weren't cell phones, per se, but they allowed a select number of users the ability to make calls from the comfort of their vehicles. These were the only such technologies until cell phones began cropping up in the 1980s.
After the introduction of the tablet into the collective consciousness, there was no way that an end to the development of cases, mounts, and other accessories would be anywhere in sight.
In addition to his corporate career as a marketing and communications professional in Chicago, Sam runs a popular blog that focuses on the city’s flourishing craft beer and brewery scene. He received his degree in journalism from DePaul University (which spurred his interest in freelance writing) and has since spent years developing expertise in copywriting, digital marketing and public relations. A lifetime of fishing, hiking and camping trips has left him well-versed in just about any outdoors-related topic, and over several years spent working in the trades during his youth, he accumulated a wealth of knowledge about tools and machinery. He’s a travel junkie, a health and fitness enthusiast, and an avid biker.