Belkin’s Continuity Digicam iPhone Mount with MagSafe for Mac Notebooks (sure, that’s the complete product identify) is a valiant try and convey Apple’s iPhone-based webcam video resolution to Mac notebooks, but it surely falls quick. Actually.
Writer’s Word: Along with my ideas under, my video above goes into rather more element about Belkin’s mount, the issues with Continuity Digicam normally, and supplies some various selections to the product.
Apple’s Continuity Digicam, a function out there with the mixture of macOS Ventura and iOS 16, looks as if a fantastic thought. It permits Mac customers with an iPhone to make use of the high-resolution cameras discovered on it to wirelessly join as a webcam, permitting for higher high quality video than most built-in webcams present.
One of many greatest issues with Continuity Digicam is that when utilizing a laptop computer, the telephone needs to be positioned on the prime of the display. MacBooks can not maintain an iPhone on their very own, so an adapter is required.
Accent maker Belkin was the primary to announce an adapter and have been additionally the primary to ship a mass-produced resolution, though many 3D print providers produced their designs on locations like Etsy.
Sadly, the corporate’s resolution, the iPhone Mount with MagSafe for Mac Notebooks is, in a phrase, horrible.
Apple is partially in charge for this: the concept of precariously sticking a heavy and fragile mobile phone on prime of a (comparatively) gentle and costly laptop computer will not be good. Belkin, to its credit score, tried to work with the constraints of the engineering downside however the resolution is lower than the requirements of its different merchandise I’ve used over time.
The power to carry an iPhone safely is, arguably, probably the most essential function of a tool like this. The mount has three design options: The primary is a magnet which is, sadly, not sturdy sufficient to carry a telephone. As you’ll see in my video, my iPhone in a MagSafe case (the case itself has a powerful magnet) won’t keep hooked up to the mount.
The opposite situation with the adapter can also be a design option to accommodate Apple’s product design. The lip on the mount is so skinny (to make minimal contact with the glass show) that when the show is tilted, the lip can’t keep contact with the sting of the display.
Due to the smoothness of the hinge on some MacBooks, if the display is tiled again and the lip manages to carry on, the laptop computer flips over from the burden.
Lastly, there’s a metallic kickstand on the mount, with a big gap within the center. This gap makes the gadget inviting to make use of as a PopSocket-type holder to make holding the iPhone extra manageable, however the sharpness of the sting of that gap meant it rubbed in opposition to my knuckle abrasively.
Within the video above, I evaluate the Cellphone Mount with MagSafe for Mac Pocket book to a 3D printed mount from a vendor on Etsy, which labored marginally higher. It additionally had the good thing about utilizing a MagSafe charging cable because the mount—permitting the telephone to make use of the adapter to offer energy, not simply stability.
Unsurprisingly, a tripod is the most effective resolution to utilizing an iPhone as a Continuity Digicam. Thankfully, there are an almost infinite variety of iPhone tripods in the marketplace, lots of that are cheaper than Belkin’s possibility.
