MobileTechTalk I previously associated PNY with memory sticks and have been using a memory stick from them for the last 5-6 years and recently when offered the opportunity to try ‘The Road Kit’. The kit comprises of a car vent phone mount alongside a car charger with a built in micro USB cable alongside a spare USB port which you can plug any other USB cable into.
The box is themed in a grey, white and orange colour scheme which has a flap that allows you to take a look at the phone mount and car charger which is really useful to see when you are looking to buy this in a retail outlet. The back of the flap section also contains instructions of how to install the air vent phone mount. The back of the box has the information about the products inside the box in multiple languages.
The air mount contains a twist screw which controls the clamp of the mount and this is a bit fiddly to do up when you place the clamp over your air vent section although it is likely you will only do this once. Once you do this, its unlikely you will ever have to do it again unless you wanted to move the positioning of the mount. The second circular twist screw controls the angle of the mount so if you place this at the bottom of the air vent then you can always tilt it upwards and this allows for a lot of flexibility to ensure your phone is docked at the correct angle in order to not have to faff around with the angle to ensure you don’t get distracted whilst driving especially with the new regulations coming into play so you should ensure you are never distracted from the road as a phone call isn’t as important as your and other drives lives.
The air mount doesn’t have any sort of soft rubber lining where it is touching your phone or the air vent, instead it uses a soft plastic which in theory should last longer and should be easier to clean as all the ones I have tried in the past have a soft rubber lining which rips easily as well as becoming grubby quickly. Only time will tell how well this material will hold up.
Only one side of the mount extends which allows you to push against that side when inserting to ensure you get a secure fit, but this does mean that if you want your phone to be in the centr
e of the vent then you will have to place this on the left side of the vent because the right-hand side extends outwards. There is fairly high tension on the spring so I would always make sure you are stationary when inserting your phone otherwise you may get your fingers caught in it or the spring mechanism could result in you dropping your phone onto the floor.
Due to where my vehicle accessory socket was located, I was only able to stretch the cable to the middle air vents rather than the ones on the right of the steering wheel and as the cable is fixed, if I wanted to place my phone on the right-hand side of the steering wheel then I would have to get a longer cable and plug that into the USB port located on the car charger.
The overall feel of the car charger doesn’t really scream quality, rather it is fairly basic and generic in the design but it gets the job done. The integrated cable is 4ft(~122cm) in length is a bit on the stiff side and I would’ve appreciated if the cable was detachable so you could replace this one with a longer or shorter cable as required but the benefit of an integrated cable includes the fact that when your car jolts or goes over a speed bump, it is much less likely for the cable to come undone which is an issue my dad had a lot before. The micro USB cable is also on the stiff side but it does reduce the chances of the cable disconnecting if you go over a speed bump or hit the brakes sharply.
The other USB port is a bit slow with charging as it is only a 1A port which for some reason charges even slower than other 1A ports I have used on car chargers before.
I have a hard time recommending this considering you can get alternatives for much cheaper with 2 standard USB outputs with 2.4A outputs each in a much more compact form factor from companies such as Aukey and RavPower and also then get the cable of choice such as the Anker PowerLine+ range which is incredibly durable for a much cheaper price than the retail cost of this. But if you still want to buy this then there is the link to purchase it below.
The Road Kit
Pros
- Would be ideal in a petrol station
- Built in micro USB cable
- Strong hinge
Cons
- Pricy for the product
- Micro USB cable length
