TYLT CAPIONFC-T Capio Universal Car Mount w/NFC Wireless Technology Compatible with Any iPhone, Samsung Android Smartphone

(Update 9/2014, about a month after my previous update): The day after my last update, I "regenerated" the Capio's sticky pad and noticed that it was deteriorating -- the surface had cracks or peels, and had left some residue behind on my phone. After that, the stickiness was barely enough to hold the phone on when freshly cleaned, and that wouldn't last for more than a few uses. That was it for this stand. I'll leave my review alone, along with my 3-star "It's OK" rating. After all, I did manage to get a year's use out of it. For what it's worth, I switched to an  iOttie  mount that right off the bat gets an extra star from me.{Updated 8/2014, after ~1 year of use...)Tylt is making a good name for itself with some pretty novel product designs -- in particular the Tylt Vu Qi-compatible wireless charger. Based on their brand's solid reputation, I decided to take a chance on this "sticky" dash mount for use with my  Motorola DROID MAXX .Let's cut to the chase: the Capio holds my phone well ~until~ it decides to drop it. And that sucks. My caseless Maxx is pretty much the ideal candidate for this technology, in that the phone has a smooth, flat matte back to give the sticky pad about the best possible type of surface type adhere to. I've been using the holder roughly 2x daily for about a year, for trips ranging from 20 minutes to an hour-plus.Without installing the included little "helper arms," (just the naked plate, as shown in Amazon's stock photo), after a few days of use, the phone would fall off after about 20 minutes. No warning, just "kerplunk." Yet the pad seemed plenty sticky.Per Tylt's instructions, I gave the sticky surface a good "recharge" rinsing / thumb rubbing, and let it air dry for a few hours. I also degreased the back of my phone with a moist screen wipe. Rough guess (difficult to say for sure) everything stuck better for maybe two days. And then we were right back at it, with the phone dropping off after about 20 minutes of use.So I installed the included helper arms. They easily pop in to channels on the back of the holder, and despite looking delicate, have proven relatively hearty. They can be oriented such that the the holder defaults to the portrait position (oriented as pictured in the Amazon product photo), or landscape, like a typical GPS device.With the helper arms installed, retention is better, but it's still important that the sticky pad be rinsed regularly. If the stickiness lessens and releases the phone, the helper arms bear some of the weight, and the phone peels off slowly. Rarely does it just drop off, because I have the opportunity to notice it getting loose on the mount.After about a week of use, I continue to have problems with the phone falling off under light acceleration or hard corners. And it's not as if the sticky pad can be recharged on the go -- it has to air dry to regain its stickiness. That's IF I'm being lazy and not rinsing / "recharging" the sticky pad at first sign of fatigue -- about every week.Now, as a possible defense for the Capio, my phone weighs in 164 grams -- just shy of 6 ounces -- and I guess that's a little heavy compared to an iPhone 5 or Nexus 4 (4 and 5 ounces, respectively). And the back of the phone can get a little warm while being used for Nav -- especially on a warm day on the dash -- but what phone doesn't have that same issue?So the good? There is some!For starters, when it works, it works well. And it's predictable. I just have to stay on top of rinsing it regularly.The suction cup that mounts the holder to the dash or window is made of the same sticky material as the cell phone holder, except in donut-ring form with a lever-actuated, suction cup-type mechanism. And it holds well to "rough"/textured plastic dash material -- none of those smooth plastic disks necessary to adhere to the vehicle for a traditional rubber suction cut base to adhere to. (Removing the mount from the dash is a flip of the lever, then fingers prying under the sticky cup to peel it away -- no residue is left behind.)Secondly, a weak point of many holders is the pivot. The Capio's is well made, with a knurled nut to tighten the ball into a tight-fitting socket. This allows the "arm" (carrying the phone) to rotate into any orientation, including a good amount of off-axis tilt in all directions. The nut can be cinched down to basically lock out any movement, or left just slightly tight to provide a balanced amount of resistance. The net effect is the phone can be oriented freely, but doesn't bounce around, jiggle, or sag while driving.The built-in NFC chip causes my phone to act exactly as intended. For starters, the first time I attached the phone, the chip launched Google Play and took my phone directly to the app needed to take advantage of the this feature. The app is relatively simple to understand, but with one note: it *appears* to work just fine in landscape orientation (which is how I mounted up my phone as I was stepping through the installation and setup of the app), but it turns out the "next" and "back" buttons of the app's pop-up dialog boxes get hidden off screen, so added some confusion when none of my "action selections" would stick. Turning the phone into portrait orientation lended some needed clarity to this very simple task.Anyhow... after programming Nav to launch and Bluetooth to turn on, my phone does exactly this every time I attach it to the mount -- as long as it's unlocked. Otherwise, I'm taken to my lock screen. And if I've already entered a "Navigate to..." command prior to mounting my phone, the NFC chip will re-launch my Nav app. That's a bit of a bummer; my best option is to NOT let NFC launch Nav, since it's so easy to launch either with the Nav icon, or "OK Google Now, Navigate To..." voice command, or via a physical Google Now swipe of my Home key. But I digress...Mounting the phone is weird. This isn't Velcro, after all. It takes a good firm press of the phone to the pad, which means either two thumbs pressing unnaturally firmly on the glass screen, or a fat palm press (also unnatural, but at least I'm distributing the force of the press across a larger area of the glass.De-mounting is equally weird, but feels probably exactly as you would expect: like peeling off a sticker.In the end, I decided to keep the Capio, but I'm not completely smitten with it. It is super convenient when it's working, but unlike any other mount, it requires a rinse down every week to keep it functional. If you can deal with that, you'll probably be able to happily use this product.

I got this car mount for the sole purpose of mounting my Sony Xperia Z Ultra to my dash. I love how easily it is to attach and remove the phone from the mount with one hand. I do however notice that I typically have to wash the sticky pads once every month or so in order to get rid of all the dust that accumulates on the sticky pad when the phone is not attached to it.

Let me save you some reading time. My review would be identical to Nathaniel Allen's review elsewhere in the review list. My experience is the same and we have the same phone. However, my experience with the mount dropping the phone happens far more often than Nathaniel mentioned. I didn't get 5 miles down the road before the phone came flying in my direction (and yes the back of my phone was perfectly clean). I immediately when to the clips just as Nathaniel did which helped but didn't solve the issue. The NFC to launch apps and whatnot when you mount the phone is a nice concept and I can see where it will be helpful. However, they give you the free version of the app. You are constantly invited to "upgrade" the application. While it's sort of cool, I am not all that interested in the NFC capabilities. For the holding of the phone, Tyit needs to find a way to improve upon this clever idea. The sticky works great for when the mount sticks to the car. There however, they add the typical suction cup/level plus the sticky material. That is great and there is the perfect solution. Why not add the "suction" concept to the phone mount, perhaps that will help hold the phone and stop dripping it. I only give it two stars because no matter how cool this is, if it can't hold the phone for more than 30 minutes or so, it really does not help me. Plus, it is a big safety issue as you can get hit in the head by the phone flying and when it drops it, your normal instinct is to attempt to catch it. Big distraction what could cause a major accident.My advise, this is not a viable solution for me. My advice is to keep looking for that perfect solution.

Cool little universal car mount. Will basically fit any phone using 'sticky' surface to hold the phone in place. Works great, from a great company.

I've had this for over a year and the gel is peeling away and is now a sticky mess

It was great when I first opened it. After owning it for sometime the adhesive is not as good anymore and I have to clean it every day and marks will not go away and it's still not that sticky anymore even after a wash. However the NFC tag is great and the idea of it sounds terrific as long as the adhesive works as advertised. This thing has dropped my phone so many times. Disappointed. Yes I do use the plastic arms. All 4 of em.

great

Wow great concept but this thing DOES ABSOLUTELY NOT stick to most surfaces. The only surface I could get this to stick to was glass. Forget mounting on the dash AT ALL [or even the smooth plastic around the dash for that matter]. It would be a more accurate statement to say that this product DOES NOT stick to most surfaces. Love Tylt products -- I own several but this one was a total waste of money. From multiple failed surface attempts straight into the trash -- the end.

This is my second Capio and it is a great piece of kit. I was dubious about the claim that the mount would stick on lightly textured surfaces, but in all the time I had my first one, it came off the (textured plastic) dashboard only once. The phone is held firmly on the faceplate in use, whilst at the same time can easily be removed when you leave the car. My only criticism is that the picture on Amazon does not show the 4 support arms, which the instructions say must be fitted to ensure that the phone is held securely. The instructions show several different configurations in which the arms may be fitted, but I’d not bother with any other than “Altering Mode” (or “Hyrbid” mode according to the instruction video!), which allows the phone orientation to be turned easily between portrait and landscape. After a couple of years the faceplate sticky pad on my first Capio started to break down and deposit sticky residue on the back of my phone. However, I reckon that was not unreasonable after so long, and I was very pleased to find it still available. It’s head & shoulders above any other car mount I have thus far seen.

I thought this was a brilliant product at first and in the beginning everything worked perfectly. However, despite following the maintenance instructions (using warm water to clean and restore the stickiness) there was an obvious decrease in its ability to hold my Samsung Galaxy S5 after about 3 weeks. It would stick reasonably well for about 5mins before any small bump would cause the phone to dislodge.That said, the windscreen mount was very sturdy and stuck well. Pity the phone mount bit was poor.

great product, works really well for me in my year old transit connect

Brilliant never comes un stuck

Does what it says , perfect