Belkin Magsafe Mount for Continuity Camera: First Impressions

[CPark98]

it's been a day or so since I picked up the Belkin MagSafe mount for my iPhone 14 Pro to use with my MacBook Pro M1 Max 16" for continuity camera with macOS Ventura and I just wanted to give my initial impressions with the device and continuity camera before it makes it to the public's hands today.

I picked up the black mount to blend into my midnight iPhone, and overall the build quality is solid, it's a soft touch black almost rubbery plastic with a metal kickstand/ring on the back. It's extremely thin compared to the pop sockets that every other person seems to use with their iPhone and is extremely secure on my iPhone to use day to day.

I've been running macOS Ventura since the first dev beta back in June, and there's been a great deal of refinement to the OS since then, and in the final RC, continuity camera has been a nice upgrade for FaceTime calls for myself. While it's an overkill solution for most people, it's one of the reasons why I just love the Apple Ecosystem. When I mount my iPhone to my Mac's lid, it's surprisingly stable, more so than I was expecting. Once you open FaceTime, it automatically defaults to your iPhone, so you are greeted by an image quality we have not seen come from a Mac webcam before. During calls or using Photo Booth, it just works. Being able to use center stage on my Mac has been nothing short of amazing, and something I've desperately missed when not using my iPad.

In summary, for my use case, the Belkin MagSafe mount is a phenomenal accessory that is worth it for me. The build quality is great and continuity camera for Mac is phenomenal, albeit desk view still needs a bit of work done for me, so until then I will just have unusually long sausage fingers typing away on my Mac's keyboard.

 

[SCP]

Thanks for the review, but would you not agree that a selfie stick with a tripod feature (which most of us have) still does a much better job? Much better angle adjustment and placement, not dictating position of your screen and not looking right up your nose... Clearly the mount has an advantage/perk on the random occassion when your MB is sitting in your lap and you have nowhere else to place a selfie tripod, but when you need to look good on screen...

The good news is that Continuity means no longer having to rely on EpocCam...

 

[rKunda]

I don’t believe it’s accurate to say “most” of us have a selfie stick.

 

[bryanhalpin]

Thanks for the review, but would you not agree that a selfie stick with a tripod feature (which most of us have) still does a much better job? Much better angle adjustment and placement, not dictating position of your screen and not looking right up your nose... Clearly the mount has an advantage/perk on the random occassion when your MB is sitting in your lap and you have nowhere else to place a selfie tripod, but when you need to look good on screen...

The good news is that Continuity means no longer having to rely on EpocCam...

I would say most of “us” don’t have a selfie stick.

 

[newellj]

Thanks for the review, but would you not agree that a selfie stick with a tripod feature (which most of us have) still does a much better job? Much better angle adjustment and placement, not dictating position of your screen and not looking right up your nose... Clearly the mount has an advantage/perk on the random occassion when your MB is sitting in your lap and you have nowhere else to place a selfie tripod, but when you need to look good on screen...

The good news is that Continuity means no longer having to rely on EpocCam...

Well, I don't own a selfie stick... Early in the pandemic I did use several different cameras, including a GoPro and a Sony ZV-1. I also used an early version of Camo with my iPhone and ended up experimenting with small tripods. I had two issues with that:

1. They took up too much space on the desk, and often forced me to position my MBP closer to the edge of the desk or table than comfortable use required.

2. They took up a lot of space, relatively speaking, if I had to be in another location.

The Belkin mount is about the diameter of an old U.S. silver dollar and about twice as thick - in other words, it takes very little space in a bag or even the back pocket of a pair of (mens') pants, and the build quality is very high.

For me, this is all less of an issue with the improved FT camera in the 2021 14" and 16" MBP, but there are a lot of MBPs with the (IMO) horrid 720p cameras.