I have been thinking for a long time how to combine the function of a phone holder and charging in the car. So that it does not take up space and is comfortable. And here I found a solution. To do this, I purchased a car holder with automatic capture and wireless charging function. Now my Samsung Galaxy S10+ phone has a place in the car, while it is always at hand, and I can answer calls or use it to navigate. If necessary, I can also charge it, without having to look for a wire and stick it into the charger. True, this device cannot be called absolutely ideal, there are also flaws, to my regret. But I will talk about them below.

I’ll start with the features:

• Brand Name: Ugreen
• Model: CD256
• Body material: fireproof plastic;
• Maximum supported input current: 5V/3A, 9V/2A, 12V/2A;
• Maximum output power: up to 15W;
• Cable length: 1m Type-C
• Holder weight: 135 g.

The holder is delivered in a small nice box. The package includes the holder with a foot for installation, instructions and a USB Type-C cord.

The instruction in a set has translation into different languages. Including Russian. There isn’t much useful information in this guide.

I liked the Typec-C cord in the kit. It is soft, 1 meter long, with comfortable tips. Unless it would be more useful for the Type-C plug to be L-shaped, but this is rather my personal nit-picking. In general, the cord is not bad, and judging by the tests, it has a sufficient cross section for normal charging and the declared currents.

Now consider the holder itself. It is made of plastic, has a neat shape and is made very high quality. All parts are fitted, and the plastic has no flash or joints. The front side is a bed with paws limiters. On the paws there is a soft silicone that confidently holds the phone, but does not squeeze it beyond what is necessary. Also on the front side there is a silicone ring, which is designed to prevent the phone from sliding on the surface of the holder when the paws are open:

On the reverse side there is a thread for mounting the clamp. Thanks to the hinged design, the clamp can be adjusted for tilt and rotation and clamped firmly. After clamping, the phone lies confidently in the holder and the clamp does not rotate. Also at the back are ventilation holes designed for blowing and cooling the electronic filling:

On the sides of the holder there are fasteners for the legs, as well as touch buttons designed to control the closing and opening of the clamps.

There is also an LED indicator on the left side that glows when wireless charging is in progress:

There is nothing on the upper end, and at the bottom there is a Type-C port for connecting the charger, and the lower legs are stops, which, if necessary, can be pushed down if you have a very long smartphone:

And this is what the clamp looks like, which is needed to install the holder in the car air duct grille:

The clip is made of soft silicone, but most likely there is a frame inside, because the clip is quite tight. Personally, when installing it on the air duct, I first slightly unclenched the jaws of the clamp with a key, then inserted it into the grate, pulled out the key and pressed the clamp all the way. Otherwise, in my opinion, you can safely break the deflector grille if you apply enough force during installation.

Well, this is how the holder assembly looks like:

Now about how I installed the holder in the car. In theory, it can be put on the deflector, which is located immediately to the right of the steering wheel, but since I have an American market car, the automatic transmission selector is also on the right under the steering wheel and the holder will interfere. So I put the holder on the left passenger deflector:

The angle of inclination is enough to turn the phone in the holder with the screen towards you. The phone stands confidently, does not dangle, does not sway. In a few weeks, only once on a very sharp turn did the deflector itself move along with the holder. And everything is holding up very well.

Now I’ll talk about the operation of the phone capture mode and wireless charging.

As I wrote above, there are two touch buttons on the sides of the holder. When you bring your finger to them, the holder spreads and moves the legs. Grasping the phone. If a phone with a wireless charging function is installed, the holder also compresses the tabs by itself. But if you put a regular smartphone, then the paws do not move. But I would like to, as it turns out that the holder will be more useful to users with phones that have wireless charging.

The process of installing the phone in the holder is quite simple. We put the phone on the stand, it automatically compresses the paws and the charging process begins:

You can also move and extend the legs simply by touching the sensors:

Everything is working properly. But it’s worth adjusting the lower tabs during the first installation (they slide down) so that the location of the wireless phone charging module matches the desired location on the holder. Without adjustment, my phone turned on charging only with the case removed, and at first I sinned that my case was too thick. Although my main wireless charging near the computer and through this case charges the phone without problems. Therefore, if you have a similar problem, adjust the location of the phone.

Now about the operation of wireless charging. The manufacturer claims that the charger supports the following operating modes: 5V/3A, 9V/2A, 12V/2A. I checked this with a wireless charger tester. And if in the modes for 5v and 9v everything corresponds, then with 12v everything is not so. The electronic load was able to squeeze out only 0.3A from the charge at 12v, and this provided that I connected a good charge as a power source, in which at 12v you can safely get up to 3A. At the same time, the voltage jumps from 12v to almost 11v. Here is what I managed to achieve:

In this case, the voltage constantly jumps from 11.3v to 12.1v:

What is not good.

And since the charger is exactly capable of delivering the declared voltage and power, I can conclude that in the 12v mode, the charging itself does not work quite correctly.

I also tried to take readings directly from the phone using the Ampere program, but, unfortunately, the charge controller does not provide all the necessary information:

I would be grateful if you tell me a similar program that allows you to at least roughly take readings from the incoming charge, and not just display the readings on the battery controller.

Conclusion:

In general, I liked the holder with built-in wireless charging. It is especially unusual to see the automatic clamping function, this is a really cool thing. No need to press, squeeze and unclench anything. I put the phone on, it closed itself. You need to get the phone, put your finger to the sensor, the paws unclenched and you can take the phone. True, several times it happened that I came by car to the right place, completely turned off the power and pulled out the key, and then I remembered the phone. To get it, you have to insert the ignition key again and turn on the power in the on-board network. Otherwise, the holder will not open. But it all develops into a habit with use, and I only had this in the first few days, before I got used to having to take the phone out of the holder before turning off the car. But now the phone in the car has its own permanent place, which is convenient and is literally at arm’s length. As a bonus, I can also note that the holder is located exactly opposite the deflector. In the summer, when the air conditioner is running, the body of the holder and the phone are cooled by cold air currents, and, for example, in the navigation mode, the phone does not heat up at all. True, for the winter time you will have to look for another holder, since from a working car stove, I think, the battery in the phone will not be good. Considering that in my car it fries straight. But these are trifles, because in my area winter lasts only 5 months a year, and the rest of the time there is a very hot summer (just kidding).

Well, summing up, I can say that I liked the holder, and now I use it all the time. The most important thing is that now I don’t have to run wires through the whole car, and the phone has its own permanent place. Since the manufacturer did not take care of a convenient shelf for the phone. And sometimes it needs to be visible (for example, for navigation mode). Well, wireless charging will be useful, during the road the phone will always be charged.

Therefore, I can safely recommend Ugreen CD256 for purchase .