In this review, I look at 3 products from Malinto – HexaCharge, HexaDash and HexaRing.
You can buy the HexaCharge Car Vent Mount & Wireless Adapter for $170 from Amazon US here – https://amzn.to/4exrw1k (with coupon), and $129 on orders purchased from the Malinto Store using my coupon code CARPLAYLIFE at checkout – https://shrsl.com/4mv7k. The HexaRing and HexaDash accessories can be purchased here – https://shrsl.com/4mvbf
TLDR: The HEXACHARGE is an all-in-one wireless charger and CarPlay/Android Auto adapter. It includes a magnetic charging plate, vent mount, and there is an optional dash mount. While the mounting can be a bit finicky, especially for iPhones with large camera bumps, the HEXACHARGE generally performs well, maintaining phone charge during long drives while providing a smooth wireless CarPlay and Android Auto experience. The software is a bit basic currently, but future updates are promised. Overall, it’s a solid all-in-one solution, though the price may be a deterrent compared to separate charger and adapter purchases.
Speak to me some years back and you would have heard me say the words “Why hasn’t someone made a wireless charger AND wireless CarPlay adapter in one single product?” Well, speaking with the tech bods at Malinto, some two years ago, these guys also shared that same question, and over two years they have designed, fine-tuned, crowd-funded its development on Kickstarter, and are now shipping this exact product. Introducing the HexaCharge- an all-in-one MagSafe wireless charger and wireless CarPlay and Android Auto adapter.
There are currently three products available from its maker, Malinto, yet you only really need one to get yourself up and running with a cable-free charger and wireless adapter; that’s the HexaCharge.
The other two products complement the HexaCharge. The first is the HexaDash- a windscreen and dashboard mounting arm for the HexaCharge, and there is the HexaRing- a small and thin adhesive magnetic ring that will turn any non-magnetic phone or case into a MagSafe-friendly one.
In the box you get a comprehensive instruction manual, the HexaCharge base plate, a unique-looking air vent-mounted mount and a 1.2-metre USB-C to C power and data cable with a USB-C to USB-A adapter for original CarPlay USB ports. The HexaDash features the screen/dashboard mount itself and a soft adhesive plate for better mounting the mount onto a dashboard that has a rough surface texture. The HexaRing just comes with its single adhesive metal ring, ready to attach to the rear of any case or phone.
HexaCharge Wireless Charger & Adapter
The HexaCharge is a fairly simple concept on the surface. It’s a MagSafe compatible wireless charger, with the same wireless adapter circuitry inside the same casing. Surprisingly it isn’t too bulky, it doesn’t get too hot during use, and its vent mounting arm has been carefully designed to fix the charging plate and phone onto various air vent blades in the car. There’s a single sliding button and status lights on each side of the mount. The left side is to turn wireless charging on/off, and the switch on the right side of the mount is to toggle between CarPlay and Android Auto connections.
Mounting the HexaCharge onto the car air vent is simple. They have chosen the ratcheted hook design, which means it will fix itself fairly firmly onto the back of most horizontal air vent blades, and there is a second adjustable rubber fork attachment below that positions itself over a lower air vent blade for better stability and overall support. It works well, but sometimes it can feel like it has been too over-engineered, with all the moving parts and tightening knobs.
At the front end of the mount is a small adjustable arm that can rotate in front of the mount so that you can position the main magnetic charging plate anywhere within a 20cm radius of the mount’s centre point. This is perfect if you wish to mount your phone high, above an air vent, which not many vent mounting solutions achieve successfully. In my VW Golf 7 interior, I had just enough vent blades to fix the mount onto, however, vertically challenged air vent designs might struggle to fit both top and bottom mounting arms. The ball joint allows for rotation and side-to-side movement of the main charging plate, so overall, there’s enough adjustment here to mount your phone in the most optimum position.
HexaDash Windscreen & Dashboard Mount
Those seeking a windscreen or dash mount can swap the bundle vent mount with the optional HexaDash. Its construction feels solid, albeit it’s all made mostly of plastic, and its very sticky sucker pad holds very firmly to a glass or very flat surface. It struggled with the texture of my VW Golf 7 dashboard, but the supplied adhesive plate is meant to help with that. The dash mount itself doesn’t pivot sideways, it only has some notched vertical adjustment, and the arm itself can also retract smoothly outwards by 5cm for a total of 10cm reach from the mount for better reachability. It has been well-designed overall and it should serve as a decent alternative to the supplied vent mount option whilst only costing a small reasonable outlay of $20 extra.
The HexaRing is pretty self-explanatory. It allows any non-magnetic-backed phone or case to be turned into a MagSafe-compatible one by simply attaching the ring to the back of a phone or case. Its adhesive holds very firmly to the back of the device or case (as long as you leave it stuck to your phone for around an hour before mounting it) but I found its magnetism could have been a little stronger.
MagSafe Mounting Woes
This leads me to one of the main issues I first experienced with the HexaCharge, its mounting plate. The plate is just ever so slightly too big for my iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro models of Apple’s smartphones. Thanks to their huge rear cameras, this bump touches the mount base and limits its full surface contact with the magnetic base, thus reducing the strength of the magnetic attachment. It’s a huge oversight by its maker. Malinto tells me this can be overcome by using a HexaRing (cue facepalm) and that an adjustment will be made in a future revision of the base itself.
Most Android users and iPhones such as an iPhone Max size shouldn’t run into the issue I faced here, but overall, it’s a shame that the mount isn’t around 2-3mm narrower to cater for Apple’s gigantic camera bump and the many iPhone cases that also come with a similar bump on them. I didn’t have issues with cases such as the Quadlock MagSafe case because the rear bump is ‘hidden’ inside its thicker case design. Using the HexaRing may overcome this issue, but slightly offsetting the MagSafe element could mean a reduced charging performance and the metal ring itself isn’t a cheap addition.
Charging Test
The charging from this mount was difficult to test. I started a four-hour journey to Bristol from Brighton, using the HexaCharge for charging my iPhone 15 Pro and also using its wireless Apple CarPlay feature for music and navigation throughout the journey. During this test, the HexaCharge mount performed well. It held up against the many potholes that litter most of our UK roads, yet brushing the phone soon saw it falling off the mount. So I do hope Malinto rework this mount to be more universal for ALL MagSafe-enabled Apple phones.
Depending on the USB port it is connected to, the best case performance you’ll get from the charger is 10W. This is good enough to maintain a working phone battery, but possibly not to fast charge it whilst it’s being used and connected. My Golf USB port outputs just 5W, so I expected it wasn’t going to get much charge from the HexaCharge MagSafe charger, however, setting off at 75% I was at 85% well into my journey, so the charger not only sustained its charge it also improved it whilst also streaming music from Spotify and using Waze for navigation.
Wireless Apple CarPlay
Mounting woes aside, I continued with my wireless CarPlay and Android Auto tests from the HexaCharge. After connecting its USB-C cable to my CarPlay port, I was soon shown the device’s launch screen, which consisted of a simple logo screen and little else. There are no buttons to return to the system menu, no Bluetooth ID to connect to, and no firmware version number that we commonly get bombarded with on most wireless adapters. It is certainly minimalistic in its design, but I would have liked a return-to-system button and a connecting Bluetooth profile ID at least.
I am told its wireless adapter hardware is comparable with adapters from Ottocast, such as the U2-air, so I was expecting to be served fast boot times with a new addition of a 60fps frame rate on connection. Connecting to CarPlay after Bluetooth pairing took 9 seconds. and once in CarPlay everything looked and felt close to native, just like most other adapters these days. The sound quality was good, call and microphone quality was great and generally, the wireless CarPlay experience was a solid pass for me.
Basic IP Config Menu
Heading into its IP config menu (192.168.18.1). This adapter took me back a year or two, due to its config options being as minimal as its launch screen. Its makers are currently working on its major update with many features we have come to expect now on wireless adapters, but right now, there are two options. The first allows you to switch between CarPlay and Android Auto launches (although this is done via a physical side switch). The second option is between quick and normal launch modes. This didn’t quite deliver the expected result when switching between them, so I left it on Quick and hoped for the best. I await a future update with all the promised bells and whistles!
Android Auto & Switching Device Platforms
Switching over to Android Auto. This is done physically by sliding the right-side switch down on the charging mount, which immediately made me question if switching between both CarPlay and Android Auto was possible for scenarios where a car is shared by an Android Auto and CarPlay user. Well, this ‘kinda’ worked, but the switching delay was long and I did have to intervene and tap on my Android screen to connect. So although it’s not perfect it is slightly possible to switch between both mobile device platforms.
Android Auto itself took 12 seconds to boot from its initial Bluetooth pairing. Once connected wirelessly the experience mirrored CarPlay, with smooth and responsive framerates, decent audio, low lag in touch input and calling and microphone quality was great too.
My Impressions
Overall, the HexaCharge is a solid win for a device that contains both charging and wireless connections to iOS and Google phones. Its retail price of $179 does hinder its appeal for me because you can easily source a faster adapter with a richer config menu and a MagSafe charging mount for quite a bit cheaper, but this route leaves you with more cables in your car interior, and for those with limited USB ports or 12v sockets, then this might be the perfect solution for you.
As their initial release, it is a solid achievement for Malinto and I am sure future evolutions of the product will no doubt iron out the previously mentioned kinks with its mounting and MagSafe design, whilst its software engineers improve on its wireless connection, compatibility and features.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 – Brief overview
1:02 – HexaCharge Unboxing
2:44 – HexaCharge Features & Design
5:24 – HexaDash Unboxing
6:09 – HexaDash Features & Design
7:52 – HexaRing Features & Design
10:40 – HexaCharge Installation & Demo
13:31 – Wireless Apple CarPlay Demo
17:31 – Wireless Android Auto Demo
19:13 – Multi-Device Switching Test
20:28 – IP Config Menu Options
21:26 – HexaDash Installation & Demo
24:25 – My Impressions
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