Car mounts are an interesting beast when it comes to Android accessories: much like the fragmentation that we’re constantly reminded about in our Android ecosystem, the size and shape of our Android phones are even more varied, and in many cases, your choices are generally a mount that only fits the one specific phone, or a convoluted, bulky and cumbersome universal mount. The Cygnett StickMount Universal Car Mount intends to be the exception to that rule, bringing you a universal smartphone mount with a tiny footprint in your car.
In the box, you’ll get the bare essentials: the mount itself, a quick start manual and the Cygnett warranty. The mount itself is made up of three parts, including the suction cup, the mount body and the adhesive pad.
The adhesive pad is being increasingly utilized in more and more car mounts now as it offers a universal way of securing phones, and the “high viscosity resin” used on the StickMount is no different. Â The resin will basically stick to anything that touches it, dust included, so it’s nice that all you need to regain the adhesiveness is to clean the pad with a wet cloth. The great thing about this adhesive pad is that it is literally compatible with any smartphone. For this review, I tested the StickMount with my Samsung Galaxy Note II, and the mount had no issues whatsoever sticking to the smooth plastic back cover of the Note II. In fact, it had no issue sticking to my Note II even when it was in its case, but we’ll cover why that’s not a good idea later.
Removing your smartphone is another matter, and actually requires quite a large effort to un-stick your smartphone. Particularly as the StickMount is actually quite small, this can result in some rather awkward attempts at prying your phone off the adhesive pad. At least you know it’s not going to fall off the mount, though.
The suction cup of the StickMount is definitely the star of the show. Although it looks flat and wouldn’t be able to stick to anything, the simple quarter-turn locking system gives it just enough space to create a really tight seal with the surface you’re attaching it to. I would have to say this is by far the best suction system I’ve ever used; it’s still hanging on tight to my car’s window after a few weeks, and shows no sign of fading. In the world of mediocre suction caps on car mounts, this is definitely a huge plus.
The body of the Cygnett StickMount is very thoughtfully made with the adhesive pad section of it rotatable by a full 360 degrees allowing for all kinds of unusual viewing angles. To assist with creating even more angles, there is an additional ball joint that allows you to move your mounted smartphone into any preferred orientation. Unfortunately, it is this ball joint that is the StickMount’s greatest downside, at least with larger phones like the Note II.
In the likely situation where you’ll be using the StickMount in your car, once your phone is mounted on the window, your phone will essentially be dangling from where the StickMount is secured. There is a little staying power within the ball joint, and this is especially evident with the Note II, if you have tilted you phone into a good viewing angle and your car travels over a hump or bump of some kind, the StickMount arm will swing backwards. This is a rather large annoyance as you’ll be fiddling and adjusting the mount to get your smartphone back to a good position, which is the kind of activity the mount was supposed to prevent in the first place. This problem would likely be less evident with a smaller phone like a Samsung Galaxy S4, but any very large bumps would still have the same effect. It must be said, though, that I like having my phone mounted in the bottom most corner close to me (which is on the right in Australia); if you were to mount the phone higher, your viewing angle may change allowing you to use the mount even through all the bumps and gyrations.
The Cygnett StickMount Universal Car Mount joins a growing movement of universal car mounts that has adopted the use of adhesives for universal smartphone compatibility. It’s good, and at a RRP of $19.95, it’s priced for what it can do. There’s a lot to like about the StickMount like the adhesive pad, the suction cap and it is absolutely tiny, however the elbow joint let’s the whole package down. Unless you are willing to live with the fiddling and the re-adjusting, it may not be the most appropriate car mount for your purposes.
For more information about the Cygnett StickMount and Cygnett’s other products, refer to the website links below:
