Seidio G4100S Car Kit

Hands on review by lgreenberg

June 20, 2006

Price as reviewed: $59.95

The 8700 series Blackberry has been out for quite some time. However, certain accessories for the device have been slow to make it to market. One such accessory is a decent car mount. Up until now the only thing available was from Pro Clip. Pro Clip makes great mounts. Well Seidio has stepped up to the plate and released a vehicle mount for the 8700 series of their own. So how does the Seidio G4100S Car Kit perform? Let’s take a look.

Nothing like receiving a big old box filled with Seidio goodies.



The G4100S is made up of three parts.

First, there’s the mount itself.



Next there’s the gooseneck for mounting to your vehicle’s windshield.



And finally there’s power.



Inside the power bag are two other mounting options.



One is a swivel mount which would have to be secured to your vehicle’s dashboard with two-sided tape.



The other is a vent clip mount.



I chose to use the gooseneck since it by far and away seemed to be the most secure of the three included mounts.

You attach a small plate to the back of the gooseneck which the mount itself slides over and locks in place.





The mount itself is made of all plastic and has two ports for cables on the side. One port goes from the mount to your car’s charging port and the other goes from the mount to the Blackberry’s charging port.









Once everything is hooked together you’re ready to install the mount in your vehicle.



The gooseneck has a locking suction cup which firmly attaches to your vehicle’s windshield.



The Blackberry is held in the mount by friction alone. It does not lock in per se but it’s held in very securely. It’s not going anywhere.



Once plugged in you can attach the power cable and charge the Blackberry while it’s in the cradle.





A minor gripe on this feature. The cable to charge the device plugs into the mount on the right side where the charging port on the Blackberry itself is located on the left. They could have shortened the cable by placing the port on the cradle on the left side instead.

I only wish somehow there weren’t so many cables.

The nice thing about this solution is that everything you need, including all the different mounting options is included.

What is included:
· G4100S cradle
· Charging cable
· Cigarette Lighter DC Power Cord
· Air vent pedestal
· 8 inch windshield pedestal
· 360-degree swivel adaptor
· Locking plate

Seidio also offers a hard-wired cable so that this mount can be hard wired to your vehicle. That would certainly solve my issue with the cables.



All and all this mount is an excellent solution for those who need their Blackberries always in sight. The mount is strong and the fact that it charges as well is an added bonus.

Now there’s one thing I’m unclear about and I’ll leave it to David Chang to respond here with clarification.

Either I was sent the wrong mount or the pictures on Seidio’s web site are not accurate.

Under the product page on Seidio’s site they have this picture shown:



You can clearly see a place for an external microphone and a volume control. This is so that telephone calls can be made and heard from the mount itself.

My mount does not have these features.



I give this mount 4 out of 5 Blackberries.



Pros: Secure, charges the device.
Cons: Lots of cables, charging port on wrong side.

Have you been able to find the diference between the one you got and the one advertized?

I was told be Seidio the one pictured on their site would be released at a later date.

The one I was sent is the one being sold currently.

Larry, are you using this holder for your car?

No I'm not.

I just stick my BB in a cup holder. I already have too many things mounted on my winshield (Tom Tom Go 700 and XM.) If I didn't have so many other things I'd probably use it.

I wish someone would come out with a good cup holder/holder... my cup holders are perfect. so long as I could adjust the angle to get it right hat'd be super! it wouldnt even have to stick up very far in my corola.