Reviewed By	Matthew (MaFt) Morley
Review Date	15th January 2013
Manufacturer	Tetrax
RRP	£19.99 inc VAT
7

I'm often on the lookout for novel ways of mounting my phones in my car. As much as I love my Brodit ProClip setup there's always a part of me that's conscious of the fact there's an obvious holder in the car advertising the fact that there may be a phone or mp3 player left in the car. Not that I ever do leave my devices in the car...

When I was looking for a suitable prize from MobileFun for last month's Christmas competition I stumbled across the Tetrax Geo holder. It's a small, magnetic clip that attaches to your air vent and a matching metal plate you stick to the back of your device. The magnet is strong enough to hold it in place. It looked like quite a neat design and was suitably discrete too.

Tetrax Geo Packaging and Extra Attachments

Installation was easy - simply unscrew the front of the mount to open the 'legs', place it on the one of the air-vent louvres* then screw it to tighten it in place. That's the mount done. For your phone to 'stick' to the mount you need to add a small metal plate to the back of it. These attach using a very strong 3M sticky pad and the pack comes with a few different sizes. It's recommended to place the pad in the middle and slightly towards the top of the device. I was too scared to stick this onto the phone itself so I stuck it to one of my cases instead! It protrudes about 2mm but because it's curved it doesn't catch on your pockets. Personally I tend not to notice it but Mini-MaFt has moaned a couple of times when he steals it to play Angry Birds Star Wars saying "your phone feels weird, oh yeah, it's that thing".

Attaching the Mount

I'll admit I was quite sceptical about the mount and how strong it would be. Most of my scepticism was, as it happens, unfounded. My phone has not dropped off once, even over large speed bumps and round sharp corners. The extra thickness, as mentioned before, is pretty much unnoticeable. It is also very quick and easy to pull the phone out of your pocket and stick it to the mount - the concave design of the mount helps ensure correct fitting when contact is made.

Attaching the Plate to the Case

That's not to say there aren't a few downsides to the Tetrax Geo though. Regardless of what anyone says we all touch our phones / devices / stereos etc while driving; even if it's just for a short period to skip past hearing Gangnam Style for the billionth time. The Tetrax Geo is fixed to the air-vent, which itself is moveable, so you do sometimes get some movement of the device when touching it. This isn't too much of an issue but you do find yourself sometimes having to support the device with your other fingers instead of just tapping it. It also rotates a bit as well; again, nothing too major. Tetrax do actually have a different mount available called the Tetrax Xway which has a rubber 'X' around the magnet to help support the device.

The Mount in Use

My only other qualm is that the mount slips a little bit even when it is tightened as much as possible onto the air-vent. This may only be an issue on my 2006 Focus (in Chav Blue) though because on closer inspection the louvres on the air-vent are curved slightly. You also need to remember to shut off the airflow to that vent to stop hot air cooking your phone!

Overall the Tetrax Geo is a useful mount so long as you don't mind having a 'bump' on the back of your phone. It could also be used for some thinner SatNavs like the Garmin nuvi 3790 although not for anything much larger.

Tetrax Geo Magnetic Phone Holder

*Thanks to @thickey on The Twitter telling me what the horizontal 'bars' are called on the air-vents!

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