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I recently had the good fortune to receive the Brodit Active Holder for the Motorola Milestone for review from our good friends at DSL developments. Many thanks to David at DSLDevelopments for providing the review unit.
Supplier: DSL Developments
Product: Motorola Milestone Brodit Holder
Fast Facts
Tilt & Swivel Cradle Cigarette Lighter Adapter for chargingWhat's in the Package?
Milestone Cradle (with Brodit mounting plate Attached) Packet of small screws Fitting instructions Brodit CatalogueAesthetics
As with all, well, almost all Brodit cradles (apart from that iPhone one!!
), the Milestone mount is incredibly well constructed and looks svelte & neat. Apart from that, what more can you say, it's a cradle!
One difference to previous Brodit cradles that I have used is that the cigarette lighter adapter has been updated to include a LED indicator light in the form of a lightning flash, rather than just a single red LED. I know it's just eye-candy, but I do like it all the same.
Fitting
Being a smartphone afficianado for quite a while now, I already had Brodit Proclips installed in my car. The Proclip mounting system does indeed making fitting a new cradle incredibly easy, which for me is a major selling point. I feel like I have cheated you out of the process for fitting the Proclips themselves, so for further details on this part I recommend that you take a peek at The Guru's review of his experience here!
The first photo shows the removal of my old HTC Touch Pro 3-in-1 mount. This is a very simple operation, I simply unscrewed the mount from its base via the Centre screw. Yes, it really is that easy.
This photo shows the naked Proclip. Note that the Brodit Cradle mounting is still attached to it. This is the key to the ease of swapping cradles around. It was at this point that I realised that the new Milestone mount would not work in the lower centre console position. This is due to the nature of the Milestone itself, in that the device's Micro USB port sits on the left hand side rather than the bottom. The means that the Milestone slots into the mount sideways, rather than top down, which means it would be impossible to insert the device into the cradle in that location.
At this point I engaged Plan B!
I have another Proclip fitted to my car, this time further up mounted in front of one of the air-vents. It currently hosts my HTC Advantage Brodit mount, but since I sold the XDA Flint, it had been fairly much redundant.
Once again I set about removing the original mount. Again, the same simple operation applies. I simply unscrewed the mount from the clip via the centre screw using a Phillips head screwdriver.
Fitting the new Milestone is just as simple as removing the old mounts. Once again using the centre screw in the mount itself, I simply screwed the new mount back to the Brodit cradle mounting. As that Meerkat on the adverts would say, simples.
All that remained was to plug the cigarette lighter adapter into the relevant socket and the cradle is good to go.
The Finished Product
In under 10 minutes, the new mount was in place and ready for action. The styling and colour of the mount matching the interior of my car. Which in my book is a major bonus!!
Device in place
The last test was to slot the Milestone into place! And that was done with relative ease. The Micro USB prong in the mount was perfectly aligned with the socket on the Milestone and it slid in and out without any issue or force required. Aesthetically, I think the device looks rather good in the mount and blends in nicely with my cars interior, which to be honest isn't hard as the interior is black, the Brodit mount is black and the Motorola Milestone is black. A winner all-round!
Pro's & Con's
Excellent Design Easy fitting - Especially if you already have an existing Pro-Clip in place for your vehicle Excellent Device stability Tilt & Swivel
NoneConclusion
The mount has performed flawlessly, as is my experience with all the Brodit mounts that I have owned before. The action to slot the device into place was very fluid and needed no force to achieve, indicating that the design is spot on and that the Micro USB connector aligns perfectly with the phone. I had no issues popping the device in and out of the cradle at all.
The Milestone, prior to its demise, was held securely in place. There was no discernable vibration or movement while the car was in motion. The mount proving itself to be definitely secure. Charging worked as it should, providing power to keep my device running whilst out and about during the day, well, if out and about in the car that is. All in all another exemplary mount from Brodit. Add the quality of the mount to the exceptional service provided by DSL Developments and I am one very happy bunny.
