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My phone is my music player and GPS, so I always want the touch screen to be no further than the radio. I had a "universal" phone holder clipped into the vent slats but the foam bumpers were either so tight that the buttons would press or so loose the phone would fall out. The back was also too high, so the Lumia's camera prevented it from sitting flat.
Back when I owned and ran TabletBlog (for Nokia Internet Tablets then eventually MID/UMPCs in pre-iPad days) I reviewed the car mounting system by ProClip USA. This time through, I have a different car and a different phone but am still satisfied with the results. It's a two-part system: you choose your make/model/year vehicle and you choose your phone holder and options. For the car, you'll typically have 1-3 mounting locations. Most cars have a vent mount option and some other side/console. My 2013 Toyota Scion iQ had two locations: the center vent clip and a front-left dashboard area. I chose the center vent for US $29.99. They also offer permanent bolt-in pedestals, but I wanted to have the most secure mount possible without altering the vehicle in any way.
The phone-specific side for the Lumia 1020 has four options: Three specific to the shape and size of the Lumia 1020 are a simple slide-in clip for US $34.99, the same with a pre-fit hard mounted charger for the 12V accessory plug for US $59.99, and a clip for hardwired installation (it comes with power leads and a 12V to 5V regulator) for US $89.99. The fourth option is their version of a "universal" mount for devices fitted into cases. Direct USB cables are not an option. The holder easily but securely holds the Lumia 1020 by the edges, with a precisely milled groove and cut-out for the camera shutter button so it does not get damaged when sliding it into the holder. The USB connection offers a little bit of added friction, but no hard click so the phone is still easy to remove. My car stereo does not support USB connection and I don't want to deal with using an additional 1/8" stereo cable, so I use Bluetooth to stream my audio. The ProClip solution is ideal for me in that I only have to slide the phone into the dock and not fiddle about with attaching extra cables.
The box arrived with the two parts individually bagged with the four screws needed to screw them together. It took only a little force to get the screws to bite into the pre-measured holes and my kit was ready. This model comes with the "tilt swivel" option, allowing limited tilt but unlimited rotation of the phone. The car mount had the two edges that slid into the vent covered with a bit of foam rubber adhesive. It's not a strong adhesive, though. It seems to be more for padding and adding friction where it actually touches the car. There's enough of a gap in front of the vent clip to where no air conditioning/heat is wasted, but enough plastic to where the phone is not getting baked or chilled directly from the vent. Because each half is made specifically for the device/vehicle it touches, it also has that "factory" look. For cars with a non-vent-covering option, it almost looks like the car was designed to have that feature. For those for whom a vent clip is the best option, it still blows away generic "universal" vent clip mounts because it doesn't attach to the slats of the vent. I can still adjust or close the vent if I wish.
Since I gave up my credentials as a mobile tech journalist some time ago, I paid full retail price for these. $29.99 for the part matched to my car + $59.99 for the part matched to my vehicle + $8.50 for shipping + $8.62 tax = $107.10. That's a LOT of money for a piece of plastic to hold my phone. If I didn't have experience with the product by reviewing it six years ago, I'd have laughed about paying that much for a phone clip. The value, though, is not in the plastic but what it was protecting: It's a perfectly solid, stable, safe, and damage-free way for me to attach a $650 phone to a $16,500 car. It allows me to operate the music app and GPS as safely and securely as operating the factory car stereo or GPS head unit.
Conclusion: If you want a car mount to perfectly match your device AND your car and don't want to mess around with plugging in your charger every time you get into the car, this is the way to go. The camera shutter button, camera bulge, and curves of the Lumia 1020 make it a bit difficult to match with a universal dock, so spending the extra cash on a "perfect fit" solution worked for me.
p.s. They also have a modular/switchable product called a "move clip" so you can use the same phone clip in multiple cars or switch out devices and they offer vertical or side-by-side mounting solutions if you want to mount a phone and GPS at the same time. None of these are cheap if you just think of them as pieces of plastic, but all of them offer a safe, secure fit for the devices.
My phone is my music player and GPS, so I always want the touch screen to be no further than the radio. I had a "universal" phone holder clipped into the vent slats but the foam bumpers were either so tight that the buttons would press or so loose the phone would fall out. The back was also too high, so the Lumia's camera prevented it from sitting flat.
Back when I owned and ran TabletBlog (for Nokia Internet Tablets then eventually MID/UMPCs in pre-iPad days) I reviewed the car mounting system by ProClip USA. This time through, I have a different car and a different phone but am still satisfied with the results. It's a two-part system: you choose your make/model/year vehicle and you choose your phone holder and options. For the car, you'll typically have 1-3 mounting locations. Most cars have a vent mount option and some other side/console. My 2013 Toyota Scion iQ had two locations: the center vent clip and a front-left dashboard area. I chose the center vent for US $29.99. They also offer permanent bolt-in pedestals, but I wanted to have the most secure mount possible without altering the vehicle in any way.
The phone-specific side for the Lumia 1020 has four options: Three specific to the shape and size of the Lumia 1020 are a simple slide-in clip for US $34.99, the same with a pre-fit hard mounted charger for the 12V accessory plug for US $59.99, and a clip for hardwired installation (it comes with power leads and a 12V to 5V regulator) for US $89.99. The fourth option is their version of a "universal" mount for devices fitted into cases. Direct USB cables are not an option. The holder easily but securely holds the Lumia 1020 by the edges, with a precisely milled groove and cut-out for the camera shutter button so it does not get damaged when sliding it into the holder. The USB connection offers a little bit of added friction, but no hard click so the phone is still easy to remove. My car stereo does not support USB connection and I don't want to deal with using an additional 1/8" stereo cable, so I use Bluetooth to stream my audio. The ProClip solution is ideal for me in that I only have to slide the phone into the dock and not fiddle about with attaching extra cables.
The box arrived with the two parts individually bagged with the four screws needed to screw them together. It took only a little force to get the screws to bite into the pre-measured holes and my kit was ready. This model comes with the "tilt swivel" option, allowing limited tilt but unlimited rotation of the phone. The car mount had the two edges that slid into the vent covered with a bit of foam rubber adhesive. It's not a strong adhesive, though. It seems to be more for padding and adding friction where it actually touches the car. There's enough of a gap in front of the vent clip to where no air conditioning/heat is wasted, but enough plastic to where the phone is not getting baked or chilled directly from the vent. Because each half is made specifically for the device/vehicle it touches, it also has that "factory" look. For cars with a non-vent-covering option, it almost looks like the car was designed to have that feature. For those for whom a vent clip is the best option, it still blows away generic "universal" vent clip mounts because it doesn't attach to the slats of the vent. I can still adjust or close the vent if I wish.
Since I gave up my credentials as a mobile tech journalist some time ago, I paid full retail price for these. $29.99 for the part matched to my car + $59.99 for the part matched to my vehicle + $8.50 for shipping + $8.62 tax = $107.10. That's a LOT of money for a piece of plastic to hold my phone. If I didn't have experience with the product by reviewing it six years ago, I'd have laughed about paying that much for a phone clip. The value, though, is not in the plastic but what it was protecting: It's a perfectly solid, stable, safe, and damage-free way for me to attach a $650 phone to a $16,500 car. It allows me to operate the music app and GPS as safely and securely as operating the factory car stereo or GPS head unit.
Conclusion: If you want a car mount to perfectly match your device AND your car and don't want to mess around with plugging in your charger every time you get into the car, this is the way to go. The camera shutter button, camera bulge, and curves of the Lumia 1020 make it a bit difficult to match with a universal dock, so spending the extra cash on a "perfect fit" solution worked for me.
p.s. They also have a modular/switchable product called a "move clip" so you can use the same phone clip in multiple cars or switch out devices and they offer vertical or side-by-side mounting solutions if you want to mount a phone and GPS at the same time. None of these are cheap if you just think of them as pieces of plastic, but all of them offer a safe, secure fit for the devices.
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