Strike Alpha Samsung Galaxy S7 Car Cradle [Review]
Using a phone to make and receive phone calls for fully qualified drivers while driving is illegal, unless it is through a hands-free device or your phone is mounted to a commercially designed holder, which is fixed to the vehicle.
If you are looking for a quality, German and Australian manufactured mobile phone cradle, look no further than Strike Alpha Phone Cradles. Strike Phone Cradles are manufactured specifically for your phone make and model. After comparing it to using a universal phone cradle as I have in the past, I wouldn’t go back as there are many benefits in using one that is specific to your phone:
- Your phone is more secured within the cradle
- It’s easier to insert and take out your phone, without having to always re-adjust the holder
- You get added benefits such as the ability to charge your phone while docked
Why Strike Alpha?
The Strike Alpha Mobile Phone Car Cradle for the Samsung Galaxy S7 has been creatively designed to hold, secure and protect your Samsung Galaxy S7 whist driving.
With a built-in charging capability that connects to your car cigarette lighter, you can easily charge your phone, and more importantly, prevent your battery from going flat while using Applications such as Google Maps.
The Cradle also has an internal passive antenna with a FME male connector so it can be connected to an external antenna to boost mobile phone reception.
It comes with a swivel mount, with the ability of other mounting options available. In the box, it comes with a windscreen mount which can easily be attached to your cars windscreen. From my 1 month of testing, the window mount only fell off once while driving… otherwise it has a pretty good suction with the window.
With the free AutoGuard Dash Cam Blackbox app, available free on the Google Play Store, you can turn your mobile phone into a Dash Cam, without the need to purchase and mount another device on your windscreen.
Thoughts on Strike Alpha for Samsung Galaxy S7
Unpacking the Strike Alpha car cradle, it came with the docking unit, the windscreen mount, a Cigarette lighter to USB and two USB cables to connect to the docking unit.
The docking unit itself has a started USB Cable, as well as the FME Male connector to the antenna. Although, this is a good feature to have, it would be great if you could take this cable out as the 10cm cabling just hanging around can be a little untidy – well that all depends on how much effort you go with your mounting, installation, and the type of car that you have.
The quality of the products is top notch, and is a lot better compared to some of those “cheaper” universal commercial phone cradles. After spending a good 20 minutes mounting it to my windscreen of my car, I finally managed to find a spot in which I could slide my phone in without the window being in the way and without it obscuring my view from driving. But once you find the right position (as you need to consider the height of the phone to slide it into the cradle), it is very easy to operate your phone whilst driving. Of course, you can have the cradle and your phone in landscape, however, that isn’t my preference.
In terms of extensively using your mobile phone such as using it for navigation with the screens brightness at its max, GPS, Bluetooth and Mobile Internet all switched on, the phone held its charge pretty well. You wouldn’t be able to charge your phone, but your phone wouldn’t be flat by the time you reach your destination. Whilst on standby, my battery would increase by around 20% per hour.
One major annoyance I have is if you leave NFC switched on, every time you unlock your phone whilst docked, your phone will open Google Play. prompting you to install the Strike Cradle App. With a rating of 1.6 out of 5 on Google Play, it is incredibly annoying to always being prompted to install it. The app features to automatically open Apps when your phone is inserted and to provide GPS tracking – two features I do not need to use as Google Maps does that well anyway.
Apart from that, overall, I am very happy with the quality and design of the Strike Alpha Car Cradle for Samsung Galaxy S7, and if you are looking to purchase a commercial car cradle, to make sure you check out the Strike Alpha range.