New addition to my car

As I bought a new phone last week and I've just paid off the finance on my car, what's the first thing I did? Punch some holes in the dashboard of course!


Actually no I didn't, I found a company called Brodit who not only make device specific holders, but they also make CAR specific mounting units and the best part is all their mounts don't damage the car! I admit even after reading how it would connect for my specific car I was rather sceptical (it clips in between the joints in the dashboard and loops back on itself to make a tight fit), but after having actually "installed" it (which took all of 2 minutes!), I'm really impressed and as long as I remove it carefully I don't think it'll have damaged the car either as they claimed, just need to be careful as it bends the plastic around the gap to get the clip in/out).

Now the obvious problem is that I can no longer actually see the button for "heated rear window", although you can still easily press it, just can't actually "see" if it's on. However considering it turns itself off automatically (and you need to push it to turn it on) I don't see this being a huge problem :)

Oh and if you were wondering why there is a black bump on the side of the cradle, that's the micro USB charging port. It's a bit bizarre that on this phone they put it on the SIDE not the bottom (it's the bottom if you open the keyboard/swivel it) but this cradle works really well and it snuggly slides in/locks and they have the power lead automatically looping round the back and down a spiral power cord to the cigarette lighter (which on my car is straight below!). So as you can see in the picture the power lead is visible, but since it's straight down it's all very tidy! :) Brodit do actually make a hardwired version of the cradle, but that wasn't something I really wanted to do.

My only complaint is the tiny blue LED in the cigarette plug. As far as I know those LEDs don't drain much power so I should be fine to leave it plugged in all the time (my stereo headunit permanently glows red even when the car is turned off) although I have emailed them about it to ask for specific power information and if needed I'll create a "test" 12V situation to see how much power its drawing without the phone plugged in (and then do the maths on how long the battery should last!). So yeh it's a bit annoying that they put an LED in it at all, but I'm sure it'll be okay :)

Oh and not really about the car, but sort of related: I love my new phone, it's so cool! :)