My previous phone holder rotated about a ball joint so I could set the phone in either portrait or landscape, with a flick of the wrist.

With this design, once I have the phone in-place there is approximately 10deg of rotation side-to-side. If I try to rotate counterclockwise beyond that point, the threads start to loosen, if I go clockwise I start to twist the bendy-arm.

Luckily this design takes advantage of standard 1/4-20 hardware, so what I might try next is buy a ball-joint like one you would see on a camera tripod, and mount that between the arm and the phone holder.

All this being said, if you don’t need to rotate your phone and you want your phone to be secure in one orientation through some rugged use, then this will treat you well. For instance, if you’re driving your car on a track and you want to film a lap with your phone, then this will be great, set it and forget it. Or if you are off-roading, this will be great.

I am trying to build a good phone holder for road trips, where I can to rotate the screen vertically for some apps and horizontally for others…. So, for me, this is a good start, but it lacks some functionality straight out of the box.

I have an apple iPhone 13 pro with a slim case on it and it doesn't fit in this holder. This phone is not a max, just a regular sized iPhone. The holder is pretty amazing and very solidly built. However, I find myself using rubber bands and other shims to hold it in place due to mounting 90 degrees from normal. This is the only way it will fit. Let me know if there is something I can do to fix this. I think it would be amazing for face timing people, telemed appointments and the normal car / boat holder.