The iKross Car Cup Holder Powered Mount is one of those products that we find so unique that we were compelled to write about it. I have always liked cup holder mounts for keeping your phone off the passenger seat. It’s also a nice mounting location for keeping it out of the view of thieves looking for common windshield mounts.
There are a lot of cup holder mounts on the market. They have been around for years. What makes this unique is that the mount integrates power connections along with it. There are powered mounts for your car lighter but this is the first I have seen where you have a cup holder mount with power. The mount doesn’t just have a power outlet, it has five. There are three standard DC adapters to allow you to plug-in a GPS car charger and another device. There are also two USB ports that can push 2.1 AMPS which is what you need to power most smartphones and tablets. The mount includes a charger that connects the cup holder base to your car’s accessory port. The cable itself has an additional DC port built into it so you have a total of three DC ports for chargers and two USB slots. That’s likely more ports than you have devices. Each of the ports on the base have a cap to protect them when not in use.
The bottom of the cup holder is expandable with a twist of the base. These will fit cup holder diameters up to 3.75 inches. That’s large enough for almost all standard cup holders with only those extremely large diameters not fitting (for example I remember some Chevy Tahoe SUV / boats made years ago having cup holders large enough fit a tire inside). A flexible gooseneck stem connects the base to the cradle. The stem is 5.5 inches high and can be bent to get the best angle for the driver or passenger.
An expandable cradle is included with the car mount. When attached to the mount, the cradle can be swiveled 360 degrees. There is a button on each side to expand the arms on the cradle. The cradle expands from 1.6 to 4.1 inches. That’s easily large enough for almost all phones, with or without a case or skin. Using an Apple iPhone 6s Plus as an example, it measures 6.22 inches tall, 3.06 inches wide and .28 inches deep so even with an added case, this will fit fine. A Samsung Galaxy S6 is 5.64 inches tall by 2.79 inches wide by .27 inches deep, so again, even with a case this is going to fit fine.
Insertion of your phone into the mounting cradle is a simple operation. Push the buttons on the side of the cradle to expand it all the way. Insert your phone and push the arms around the phone. To remove your phone, push the buttons on the side while holding your phone. The arms expand and your phone is released.
The addition of the charging aspect of the iKross Car Cup Holder Powered Mount makes this mount worth consideration. It’s a feature unavailable in other cup holder mounts, let alone five different charging ports.