Six gadgets you definitely need in your car

We spend more and more time inside the car as traffic congestion in Metro Manila has become the norm. All we can do, really, is to make our daily trip more comfortable and productive. So we came up with a list of gadgets and devices you can bring and use in the car while taking the agonizing trip to work every day.

1. USB Car Chargers

USB car chargers are pretty common and standard these days and while newer car models already have them as a standard feature, there’s still a huge demand for third-party USB adaptors.

The Belkin Road Rockstar comes with four USB ports – two front seat USB ports share 2.4A of power that can charge two smartphones at the same time. The extendable hub allows backseat passengers to charge two tablets simultaneously at 2.4A per port. That’s a total of 4.8A from one single car adaptor.

The extended hub has a clip that fits right into the back pocket of the carseat. With a total of four USB chargers, we don’t think the entire family or friends will have a hard time charging their devices while on the road.

2. Car Mount

We don’t recommend texting or using your smartphone while driving but if you have to, at least make sure both hands are on the streering wheels. That’s where the smartphone car mount comes in handy. One of our favorites is the Steelie. It started out as a KickStarter campaign back in 2012, got funded, and went to become a full-blown business.

The Steelie comes in two parts – the ball bearing with base socket and the magnetic steel socket. The magnetic socket attaches to the back of your smartphone (or the case) with a strong adhesive that’s similar to 3M’s double-sided tape (makes it somewhat permanent unless you peel it off). The ball bearing with the base is placed on the dashboard of your car (needs a flat smooth surface) using the adhesive side.

Another car mount that we’ve been using for a much longer time is the Belkin Vent Mount. It clips to the grills of the aircon vent and can hold devices ranging from an iPhone 5 to an LG G4 (max of 3.3 inches wide). Bigger ones like the iPhone 6 Plus are not supported. The clip rotates 360-degrees and has a built-in cable holder at the back.

The clip holds pretty tight on most vents but a few ones we’ve tried might not work as well on thinner and shorter blades.

3. Universal Powerbanks

Not just any powerbank. You might need a high-powered one just like this Enerpad Laptop powerbank.

The Enerpad stores 18,000mAh of power and comes with a three-prong socket so you can plug your laptop right off the bat. There’s enough juice here that you can even plug a regular electric fan (or actually any other device, for that matter).

With 18,000mAh, you should be able to get three times of full charge on a Macbook Pro Retina. The powerbank also has two USB ports with 2.4A rating to recharge a tablet or smartphone. The Enerpad has a dedicated charging cable that can fill the powerbank up to 100-percent power in just four hours.

It’s big and quite bulky at 480 grams but could be worth it for long trips.

4. Dash Cams

We think dash cams are a good investment and should be a staple in any car. It can be very useful especially in times of mishap.

There are quite a number of them in the market, with prices ranging from P5,000 to P15,000.

5.  GPS for Navigation

When navigating through uncharted territory or just taking alternative routes due to heavy traffic, a GPS or a navigation device should be very useful. There are a few ways to get this.

One is by buying a dedicated GPS kit like the Garmin Nuvi, or by using your smartphone. All you have to do is install Waze or the MMDA app.

We suggest getting an affordable tablet (like the Asus ZenPad C) and downloading Nokia HERE for offline use; the tablet also doubles as a media player for movies or TV series.

6. Car Wi-Fi

We know you can use your smartphone as a mobile hotspot and there are a lot of affordable pocket WiFi devices around. Then, there are also WiFi devices specifically created to be an integral part of your car.

We previously used the Huawei CarFi, which plugs straight into the cigarrete lighter plug and comes with a SIM card slot and USB port. Problem, though, is that it’s dependent on the power of your automobile so once you turn off the engine, the WiFi goes off as well.

Perhaps future cars will have built-in 3G WiFi modems in them so all you have to do is plug in a data SIM but this will have to do for now.