Quad Lock Out Front Mount Pro

The Quad Lock Out Front Mount Pro is the longer, lower sibling of the excellent Out Front Mount. Made from machined alloy instead of plastic, it's the less-sweat-splashed, more-aero rock-solid solution for today's larger devices.

When I reviewed the Out Front Mount five years back, it got a knockout five stars. Quad Lock hasn't changed the fundamental design, but in the intervening half-decade its customer base has exploded and phones have gotten a lot larger – requiring a rethink of the phone-out-front model choices.

If you're already in the Quad Lock ecosystem know, your question will likely be 'Is the Pro simply 25mm longer and 9mm lower?' Fundamentally yes, that's it. Having not to look down quite so far to see your screen, or having a large phone be able to clear other things you may have on your bars such as lights, computers and so on, could be a sell for you. Or maybe you care about 'aero' or aesthetics, in which case the 9mm drop in profile will be of interest.

One limitation here, which may not be obvious, is that the drop in height means you can't reverse the mount to position your phone over the stem. You'll need to stick with the standard Out Front mount for that.

The new Pro mount maxes out on a 31.8mm bar, so if yours is a newer 35mm diameter you'll be wanting the standard Out Front mount, which was upgraded to the newer fatter size a few years back. Spacers are included for 25.4 and 22mm dimensions. Personally, I line the inside of 31.8mm clamps with electrical tape to ensure they don't scar the bar, and I wish Quad Lock would rubberise the inside of all its mounts likewise.

The locking mechanism is the same rock-solid eighth turn-and-click as the Out Front. The Pro can also be customised with three different alternative levers in black, white and red, and takes the optional standard action-cam mount underneath. 

This review is just for the mount, and you'll need a Quad Lock case or adapter to use the mount. Quad Lock does different bundles for its mounts or you can purchase each component separately. Cases are available for pretty much every popular modern smartphone, or you can buy a stick-on Universal Adapter that will go on the back of any phone or case. The Quad Lock cases are excellent; all our household’s phones live in them 24/7 for drop protection. 

A cool feature of the Pro mount is that you can reverse the lever position – which you can't do with the standard mount. This means if you are predominantly left-handed, you can have the lever stick out the left side, so you can press down with your small and ring fingers while gripping the phone with thumb and first two fingers, as you can see in the on-bike photos.

Possibly an esoteric advantage, and one Quad Lock doesn't currently promote, is that the Pro mount can be fitted with its 'Moto' wireless charging head. As of October 2020 the Moto charger is undergoing a redesign, and once available could be retrofitted to the Pro mount, meaning you can have weatherproof wireless fast charging off a dyno hub or USB-C battery pack – a real boon for long-distance, bad-weather cycling navigation. If you're reliant on phone apps such as Komoot or Viewranger for route plotting and then navigation on the go, having an alternative to a non-waterproof charging port could make all the difference in the damp middle of nowhere.

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Riding with it over very rough tracks for a few months, the Quad Lock system performed flawlessly. Phones released and attached to order, whether I had gloves on or not, the large locking tab making easy work of articulating the mechanism. There's a learning curve to getting the phone in the right eighth-turn position to press in, and it doesn't happen first time, every time, but it's never been an issue that warranted more than a second or two's delay reattaching.

Having the phone a bit further out front was of noticeable benefit over the standard mount, but not as much a gamechanger as going from stem-mount to the original Out Front was.

Value

At £49.95 the Pro is a full £20 more expensive for that extra 25mm out and 9mm down. You're also paying for a doubling of weight from 37g to the Pro's 79g. Mind you, if you're using it to safely and slickly support a 120g+ phone likely costing in excess of £700, then £20 and 42g extra probably isn't that much of an issue.

In the 'hold your phone out front of the bars' category there's surprisingly little competition for Quad Lock. SP Connect does a £30 version, but it's a full quarter-turn and the need to aim carefully seems higher than with Quad Lock, looking at the videos; we haven't tested it, but the reviews aren't favourable. The £34 Tigra Sport FitClic Neo does a similar job using an assembly of magnets driving a mechanical lock, but again the user reviews aren't universally flattering, shall we say.

Overall, the Out Front Mount Pro is a class bit of kit – only let down by price comparison with its closer, higher but lighter relative. If you didn't know the alternative was £20 cheaper you'd probably not quibble the £49.95 asking price, given the quality, functionality and reputation on offer. So really the question is – what's your use case? And do you need a further-out, lower mount to achieve it? If the answer is yes, then you won't be disappointed with the Pro.

Verdict

Currently the best way to get a large phone out front of your handlebar