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A head-up display alternative heads our kit round-up

A HEAD-UP display (HUD) is one of the most desirable pieces of car technology, allowing you to see key car information such as speed, revs and even sat-nav directions without having to take your eyes off the road. But retro-fitting one is a pricey process, and windscreen-reflecting smartphone apps we’ve tested in the past have proven hit and miss.

Olixar aims to remedy this with a handy phone holder, as well as a piece of mirrored glass to act as the reflecting surface. The idea is that you simply slot your phone into the HUD, fire up an app and carry on as before. Does it work?

We’ll start with the positives. The sticky silicone pads remedy our biggest complaint with other smartphone HUD apps we’ve tried – keeping your phone secure even when cornering hard. The unit itself feels solidly constructed and is discreet enough that it shouldn’t draw unwanted attention if left in place.

Open an Hud-enabled app (we used Navmii Navigation because Olixar’s recommended Hudway kept crashing), and yes, it does reflect off the glass as an HUD should.

There are a couple of problems, though. The idea of an HUD is that you can see through it to the road ahead, but the mirrored finish of the Olixar’s glass is not sufficiently transparent to allow this. So you may as well mount your phone as normal. We also found it tricky to get an ideal angle, although this will depend on your car’s design.

Overall, Olixar’s HUD phone mount is a great idea poorly executed. If the glass were more transparent it would definitely merit a second look.

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