Steanum Wireless Car Charger review: the best phone holder for the car?

I’d be a liar if I said I’d tested all the phone holders for cars – but I’ve bought more than my fair share, and most ended up in the bin after a few weeks. They either miserably failed to hold the phone when you inevitably bumped over a pothole, or they failed to suck/stick/clamp themselves to the car dashboard. Can the £25 Steanum Wireless Car Charger do any better?

Steanum Wireless Car Charger design

Firstly, I’m a big fan of the design of this cradle. I’m usually wary of generic designs – this one can supposedly hold virtually any mainstream smartphone you can name – but this one works.

That’s mainly down to its so-called Gravity Sensor, which is nothing of the sort. Instead, when you slide the phone into the cradle from the top, the weight of the phone uses a pulley system to clamp the handset from the sides. To remove the phone, just lift it out and the side clamps retract.

My fear was that the phone would easily jump out of the cradle every time you went over a speed bump or potholes, but it doesn’t. Despite bumping it over Sussex’s shoddiest roads for about a week now, the phone hasn’t threatened to leap out of the cradle once.

One thing to note, however, is that the design of the cradle means the phone must be positioned the ‘right’ way up. If you like your phone sitting in the landscape orientation, seek another cradle.

The other key part of the design is the clamp. This attaches to your car’s air conditioning vents and it’s a reassuringly strong grip. Just remember to turn that particular vent off if you’re using the car’s heater, or you’ll stand a very good chance of overheating your phone.

Steanum Wireless Car Charger wireless charging

The bonus feature of this cradle is wireless charging. The bottom of the cradle is split so that you can plug a USB cable directly into the phone if you wish, but you might as well plug an old-fashioned micro-USB cable into the back of the cradle itself (a 1m cable is supplied with the charger).

I was sceptical whether the wireless charger would provide enough juice to keep my Samsung Galaxy S9 topped up with satnav and Spotify running, but it does just fine. Note, however, that I’m using a Belkin universal car charger that outputs at 10 Watts – performance may vary if you’re using an in-car USB socket to provide the power.

The wireless charger even works through the rubber case that wraps around my Galaxy S9, which is again unexpected.

Overall, the Steanum Wireless Car Charger is a reasonably priced, sturdy and effortless way to keep your phone topped up while you drive. Hopefully, my car cradle shopping days are over.

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