List Price: $27.99
Sale Price: $21.99
Today's Bonus: 21% Off
Full Disclosure: After reviewing a previous version and leaving some suggestions for improvement, MyTradeWorld offered to give me a significant discount on this version as it addresses a few of my suggestions.
The Kit:
That said, this is a solid mounting system. All of TFY's headrest mounts currently use the same setup: a large elastic band with Velcro that wraps around the car's headrest, and a second piece that attaches to your device. The band and has a patch of hook-side Velcro on one side, and piece that mounts to the device itself and has a matching patch of loop-side Velcro on the back.
The other piece in the equation is the actual device holder, which varies by kit. In this case, that takes the form of a flat board that the tablet attaches to, which is approximately the same size as an average 7" tablet. It is covered in vinyl (I think), with a leather texture, stitched nicely around the edges and has a small double-layer elastic strap stitched in across each corner for actually holding the tablet.
Usage:
Installing the band means simply wrapping it around your car's headrest and pressing the Velcro ends together to secure it. If necessary, rotate the band so that the remaining Velcro patch is on the back side of the head rest. Pretty simple. Of course, these are a "one size fits most" type of solution. They fit just fine on each of the 4 cars that I tested with, but if yours has abnormally large headrests or headrests that are integrated into the body of the seat, the bands may not fit.
Attaching a tablet is simply a matter of laying it in the center of the board and pulling each of the elastic corner straps up over the corner of the device. From there, mounting the tablet/board in your car is no more difficult than pressing it up against the back of the headrest where you installed the band portion previously. Installing both halves takes no more than a couple minutes the first time, and well under a minute combined after you've done it once or twice.
Opinions:
The Good-
This setup works surprisingly well! I probably won't be leaving the board attached to my tablet all of the time, but when it is on, it holds the tablet securely, and I'm not afraid of it coming out accidentally under normal usage. The tablet is held in place well enough that it doesn't budge even after driving on the worst of roads, but easy enough to remove that my 3-year-old son can pull it down if he wants to watch something else, or that I can remove it easily by reaching back from the front seat.
This is a pretty flexible system and should work with most 7" tablets. We've been using it primarily with both 2012 and 2013 versions of Google's Nexus 7 and also managed to fit a Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0, though that did require stretching the elastic straps to their absolute limits.
TFY also includes a Velcro "finger grip" that can be used with the mounting board that helps to hold the tablet with one hand. This was of limited benefit since 7" tablets are pretty easy to grip anyway, but this could be a big help with their similar 10" model.
The Bad-
Depending on your specific device, the elastic retaining straps may block some of the device's hardware buttons. On my Nexus 7, one strap goes right across the power button. This can make it a little difficult to press the button, but I usually manage by slipping my finger under the strap and pressing the button that way.
One weakness to this type of setup is that it doesn't have nearly the flexibility of the mounts with articulated arms. The tablet will face directly back from the headrest, and there is very little you can do to pivot it up and down or side to side. Since I bought this for my only son to use, this doesn't matter for us just yet, but it may not work all that well if you have multiple people in the back seat attempting to watch the same device.
Conclusion:
As I mentioned previously, this is a very simple design, but the manufacturing execution is excellent and the system does its job very well.
The elastic straps blocking buttons is a minor annoyance, but one that I'm more than willing to put up with for an inexpensive mounting system that I can use with any of our tablets and works this well.
If you only have one 7" device, one of TFY's device-specific mounts may work better for you. However, if you have more than one and want to be able to use the same mount with any of them, this is the way to go!
Pro Tip:
Be sure to wrap the mounting band around the headrest fairly tightly. Otherwise, the weight of the tablet can cause the band to rotate and the tablet will slip lower on the headrest. It's never in danger of falling off, but can end up pointing downward. Tightening the band around the headrest eliminated the problem completely.
No comments:
Post a Comment