Phone mounts aren’t typically flashy, choosing to focus on doing the job it’s meant to do above having a striking aesthetic. And most users aren’t thinking about what their mount or tripod says about themselves when setting up a shot or workstation.
The Tenikle 360 mount asks the question, “Why not both?”
Most people may recognize the Octopus-inspired accessory from inventor and Tenikle CEO Hans Dose’s humorous pitch on Shark Tank. It’s hard to unsee this tool that feels just as malleable as the Lovecraftian mythos its form makes the brain recall, but the Tenikle 360 marries its appearance with versatility that’s accomplished thanks to its design.
Out of the box, the Tenikle 360 resembles a typical sturdy tripod, but it pairs that stability with flexibility. Each of its three tentacle legs can be bent to meet the space available and frame photos or videos quickly. The additional 360-degree arm allows for even more customization, allowing the phone mount to be twisted and turned to capture and display images on your device at various angles.
The options open even wider when the suction cups that line each leg come into play. Since all of the legs are bendable, users can make it conform to nearly any surface with the suction cups helping it stay put. In my month testing the Tenikle 360 against my imagination, I rarely found a scenario where it didn’t meet expectations.
What if you fold all the legs flat and stick it on the wall? It stayed put. Want to wrap it around the handlebars of your bike for on-the-go? It held snug. I slapped it on a frisbee to see if it would stay secure when thrown. I mounted my webcam on the edge of my desk and the top of my monitor. I interlocked the legs around my ceiling fan and let it take some trips around the world of my office. It succeeded in all of these tests.
This sold me on the Tenikle 360’s wide range of use, and the ease of switching out the included phone mount and 360-degree arm for a webcam or camera was refreshing. The company claims that it can support up to 33 pounds, though I didn’t test anything beyond the weight of a tablet in my time with it. The suction cups themselves did hold my phone securely.
The only real worry I felt was specifically with the phone mount. It feels cheap to the touch compared to the rest of the Tenikle 360’s construction, and my Google Pixel slipped out of it once or twice when I applied sudden force or rapid movement while using it.
I also have some qualms about the longevity of the 360-degree arm. It bends fairly easily, but it also feels like it could get some kinks in it with long-term adjustment similar to how you can never really straighten out a paper clip by hand. But the arm isn’t necessary to utilize the Tenikle 360 to its potential. I’ve made it as my full-time webcam mount without using the arm and it’s been great.
The $45 asking price on Tenikle’s website is a huge ask considering the cost of other phone mounts and similar-sized consumer tripods, but its versatility is enough to make that wallet hit feel somewhat better. It feels like a premium product that is weird in the right ways.