Top 5 Best Smartphone Gimbal in 2024

The image stabilization capabilities of your camera alone are greatly surpassed by the greatest smartphone gimbals. A gimbal takes charge of the phone’s movement, allowing for smooth panning, sweeping motions, and even the capacity to track moving things within the picture, while the former can help lessen the worst of your unsteady movements. Put another way, you can record film that looks professional without lugging around bulky, complicated gear if you mount your smartphone on a gimbal.

The top smartphone gimbals on the market right now are listed below. These are mechanical stabilizers that rotate the camera on at least two, usually three, axes to maintain stability. They use motors to accomplish a variety of actions, which can function separately or in tandem. As an example, the Pan Follow mode will continue to a level camera as it moves, while Follow modes allow for smooth vertical tilting, and POV modes enable horizontal tilting for more dynamic angles, all while maintaining perfect stabilization.

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Last update on 2024-09-24 / Affiliate links/images from Amazon.

Top 5 Best Smartphone Gimbal in 2024

1.DJI OM 6

Last update on 2024-09-24 / Affiliate links/images from Amazon.

Our reviewer tested the DJI Osmo Mobile 6 with the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which is one of the heavier smartphones available now, and the gimbal was able to keep up with some aggressive movements and still maintain incredibly smooth footage. He could comfortably get the gimbal to nearly 180˚ without the default mode losing the horizon. The FPV mode, in which the camera effectively leans into the frame, is another impressive feature of this highly professional selfie stick/gimbal.

We’ve previously said that the Osmo Mobile has an origami-like feel, and this updated model still follows the same fold-out concept. The generation number shows how quickly the series has progressed. You may be forgiven for wondering how the OM5, which included an integrated extension pole, could be made better, but DJI needed to keep this product in production because it is a popular one.

Since DJI is not in the low-cost segment of the market, it appears that the new OM6 has moved toward a more professional aesthetic, looking a little more serious and feature-rich than its predecessor.

Is DJI able to successfully blend professional standards and capability with the mobility and convenience that consumers want from their phones?

The DJI Osmo Mobile 6 feels solid in the palm and comes in a gorgeous new deeper gray color than its predecessor. The gadget shouldn’t slip out of your hand thanks to the grip’s corresponding rubberized surface. The folding mechanism includes an extremely sturdy hinge at the top, so sturdy that you might think it will shatter the first time you open it. However, the motors move a great deal when they are not energized, which may raise further concerns but actually demonstrates excellent engineering.

Incidentally, the gimbal base features a normal tripod mount that allows the fold-out tripod stand to be easily screwed in or out. Rubber feet provide it a stable foundation, yet it doesn’t add much weight to carry.

Folding the gimbal back will, we suspect, always feel slightly odd because after the initial fold the arm needs to be coaxed around until it drops into a recess, but it is easy enough and, again, feels convincing once done.

Turning to the controls, things here look markedly more professional than the previous OM5. In part the darker color makes this impression, but the gloss ‘display’ with the new Mode button to the right and the Side Wheel with orange trim really achieve this. The display is simply made of back-lit icons but the result is more elegant than exposed LEDs would be, and battery chart, status light and the four mode icons are all that is needed. 

The device requires that your phone (in case or not) is placed in a magnetic clip. In our testing this didn’t interfere with the device, though you can’t use wireless charging while it is in place. Most phones – including Apple’s smaller and larger ones – fit in with no problems, and the rubber grip left no marks on our shiny new 14 Pro Max.

2.Zhiyun Smooth 5S AI

Last update on 2024-09-24 / Affiliate links/images from Amazon.

In terms of functionality and cost, the Hohem iSteady M6 that is included in this tutorial is extremely similar to the Zhiyun Smooth 5S AI. However, as the Hohem is a more recent model, you may be able to find it for less money if you shop about.

The Zhiyun Smooth 5S AI, like the Hohem iSteady M6, comes with a magnetic sensor that hooks into the gimbal directly above your smartphone. The sensor recognizes movements that set off a variety of operations using AI. To maintain your face in the frame while you walk and speak, for instance, the gimbal automatically tilt and pan the connected smartphone if you make the OK motion. Because of this, it’s a valuable tool for a vlogger or presenter who wants to add some movements as they talk to the camera (without having to pay for a camera operator).

There is a small LED fill light on both the iSteady and the Hohem, however the Zhiyun’s LED is brighter than the other. The Zy Cami app offers additional gesture control over native smartphone Camera apps, since the AI sensor allows you to initiate and stop recording with a simple motion, eliminating the need to manually hit the record icon.

With your smartphone, you can create stunning camera movements like tilts, pans, and cranes (from low to high angles), as well as gliding sideways tracking views and forward/backward dolly moves, thanks to the Zhiyun Smooth 5S AI, a 3-axis gimbal (or stabilizer). The primary enhancement to the Zhiyun Smooth 5S that we examined back in 2022 is the AI sensor that allows the gimbal placed on the tripod to tilt and pan, allowing the smartphone attached to follow your every move. These days, AI sensors are becoming common in gimbals, particularly with smartphone gimbals like the Hohem iSteady M6 gimbal.

Zhiyun, which was founded in 2015, is well known for creating a variety of gimbals, ranging from the smartphone-compatible Smooth series to the high-end Zhiyun Crane series for full-frame camera stabilization.

3.Hohem iSteady MT2

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Last update on 2024-09-24 / Affiliate links/images from Amazon.

Does money not matter? The Hohem iSteady MT2 is then something you should look into. Because you can do a lot with it, even though it costs considerably more than our top choice. It also feels and looks a lot more like a professional gimbal than other gimbals.

With a 1.2 kg payload capacity, this premium 3-axis gimbal is compatible with mirrorless cameras, action cameras, and cellphones. It’s loaded with capabilities and designed to deliver fluid, professional-looking camera motions including tilts, pans, and tracking views.

These include the ability to instantly convert between horizontal and vertical orientation, manual tilt angle adjustment, and AI-powered face and object tracking via the Hohem Joy app or an extra AI sensor device. tangible controls, such as a zoom dial and joystick give the user fine control, while creative shooting modes like “Inception” mode and “CloneMe” panorama add some unique capabilities.

The iSteady is a standard 3-axis gimbal that lets your smartphone, action camera, or mirrorless camera to capture smooth dolly shots and pans, tilts, and rolls that appear professionally done. The iSteady may function as an independent camera operator because of an attachable tiny tripod. Just place the gimbal on the tripod and use the Hohem Joy app’s gesture control feature. The gimbal may then be set to track your every step as you move and converse freely on site by using a hand gesture. If you crouch, it will even tilt down to keep you in the picture. The recording will be saved and the gimbal will stop following you with another hand gesture. View our auxiliary video to see this cool feature in action.

You can explore a variety of imaginative shooting settings, including Inception mode, using the Hohem Joy app. In order to get the kinds of pictures made popular by the film Inception, this causes the gimbal to position the camera horizontally and rotate it through 360 degrees. As you can see from our film, we had a great time testing this setting during our test shoot. Inception mode can also be activated by three taps of the Mode button. Additionally, the mode button allows you to switch between traditional gimbal shooting modes such L (lock), POV (point of view), and PTF (pan, tilt, follow).

4.Hohem iSteady V3

Last update on 2024-09-24 / Affiliate links/images from Amazon.

Although there are many stabilizers in this buying guide, the iSteady V3 is among the least expensive gimbals available and has a few more tricks up its sleeve compared to the others.

First of all, it’s arguably the smallest gimbal we’ve reviewed; when folded, it fits into the pocket of your trousers (provided you remove the AI sensor). The tripod legs are cleverly positioned inside the gimbal’s shaft, as opposed to being attached via a single thread as other stabilizers do, which allows for its compactness.

When the gimbal has to be freestanding, you can then extend the legs and utilize the AI sensor to make your smartphone pan and tilt to follow your every move like a professional camera operator. The AI sensor recognizes a host of control gestures – such as using a double-handed thumbs-up to make it swap from portrait to landscape orientation.

The iSteady V3 also has a special detachable control panel that allows you to operate the gimbal remotely via Bluetooth. This allows you to pan and tilt the gimbal while taking a selfie from a distance and to start and stop recording using the Camera app on your smartphone. The one significant drawback is that shooting very low-angle tracking shots is more difficult due to the tilt angle’s smaller range than that of many other gimbals.

Probably the first brands that come to mind when we think of 3-axis gimbals, or stabilizers, are ZHIYUN and DJI. On the other hand, Hohem Tech, a Chinese enterprise, has been refining their range of smartphone gimbals since 2014 and asserts to have manufactured the initial face-tracking gimbal in 2016. I tested and reviewed iSteady V3 before it was released.

Though a gimbal does provide an additional degree of control, modern smartphones are excellent at applying in-camera stabilization to your handheld film to create smoother gimbal-like motions. See why, even with the newest smartphone, a gimbal should be in your kit bag by reading my opinion post.

You may be surprised to learn that the Hohem iSteady V3 comes in a tiny box and contains a gimbal. This is the first thing you’ll notice about it! After opening the package, you can tuck the folded gimbal into your jeans pocket, but not before removing the clip-on AI sensor from the device.

Even though this is the smallest gimbal I’ve tested—I’ve reviewed 17 gimbals overall—it managed to smoothly tilt, pan, and roll my iPhone 15 Pro Max despite its small size.

One reason for the gimbal’s tiny size (as well as the packing around it) is that it comes without the standard screw-on compact tripod that other smartphone gimbals do. This is down to an innovative design feature where the tripod legs are built into the base of the gimbal ready to be extended when required. I’ve not seen this feature before. At first glance, the three slim metal tripod legs look very spindly, but they were strong enough to keep the gimbal standing steady with an iPhone mounted on it, as you’ll see from our supporting test video in this review’s Performance section.

5.Zhiyun Smooth X

Last update on 2024-09-24 / Affiliate links/images from Amazon.

The Zhiyun Smooth X is a lightweight, portable phone gimbal that lasts for 5.5 hours on a single charge. Even though it is made of plastic, it feels well-built, and anyone looking to get better at filming smartphone videos would find it to be a very attractive purchase given its low cost.

The gimbal head can be rotated 90 degrees into portrait mode, which makes it ideal for recording videos for Instagram or TikTok. The ability to spin the phone while moving to produce something a little more dynamic was quite appealing to our reviewer.

The incompatibility of the ZY Cami app, which is required to set up the gimbal, is our only complaint regarding the Zhiyun Smooth X.Meet the Zhiyun Smooth X gimbal – a rotatable, palm sized 4–axis stabilized gimbal from smartphones and action cameras. This latest offering from Zhiyun is so light and compact that you can easily toss it into your backpack or coat pocket – but how does this smartphone gimbal hold up when put to the test? I took it out for a spin to see just how well the Smooth-X handled.

The Zhiyun Smooth X features an extendable grip (up to 260mm), which is helpful when you want to get a little extra reach. It also comes with a handy phone app to help you create videos with a little extra pizazz.

Simplicity is key when it comes to creating films on a smartphone. Fortunately, this simplicity is provided by the Zhiyun Smooth X, which weighs only 246g and produces surprisingly consistent footage when coupled with your phone. I’ve been a longtime admirer of Zhiyun gimbals and have had the Zhiyun Smooth Q for many years. The Smooth X is much more compact than the Smooth Q, which I found to be quite enjoyable.

Though compactness is nice and all, steadiness is the most crucial feature a gimbal should offer. The stability of the Smooth X when used as a gimbal-like “selfie stick” is already sufficient for the majority of users, but it also contains roll and pan motors (albeit it lacks a tilt motor, which I’ll discuss later). This means that it features 4-axis stabilization, giving users more than enough stability to experiment with. However, I would say that I’d be tempted to label the Smooth X as an extremely impressive selfie stick rather than a full blown gimbal.

The Zhiyun Smooth X travel gimbal is housed in a sleep-looking shell that has a wrist strap to help prevent accidental drops and knocks and a sturdy exterior to protect the smartphone. The primary stick has tiny removable tripod feet that allow you to quickly set it down while keeping your phone fixed. You can also use it to steady-surface recording or time-lapse photography.

Installing the ZY Cami app and connecting it to the gimbal when you initially turn it on are crucial steps in getting started with the Zhiyun. After the gimbal stabilized and I established the initial connection, I chose to simply use my phone’s (Huawei p30 Lite) inbuilt camera app so I can’t comment much further on how the ZY Cami app works in the field.

How to choose the best smartphone gimbal

There are a number of crucial aspects to take into account when searching for the finest smartphone gimbal functions. To start with, you need to make sure your phone will fit the gimbal by carefully examining the size parameters. As many of the top camera phones available now come in quite large sizes, this compatibility is crucial. The capability to swiftly switch between horizontal and vertical shooting modes is another appealing feature. This can be especially helpful when taking videos for websites like TikTok.

Selfie sticks that are built into gimbal designs can also be a useful addition because they let you hold the device farther away and capture better self-portraits. The gimbal’s folded size is also important to take into account; the smallest models are quite portable and may fit into a coat pocket or purse.

What is a smartphone gimbal?

A smartphone gimbal is a motorized apparatus designed to combat wobble and maintain a steady camera on your smartphone through the use of motors and sensors. This enables you to record fluid, polished videos using your phone.

How do smartphone gimbals work?

Smartphone gimbals maintain your phone level and steady even while you move by continuously adjusting its position using brushless motors. Smooth film is produced by them detecting and counteracting undesirable movements.

What are the benefits of using a smartphone gimbal?

The smooth, steady video that is produced by a smartphone gimbal is its primary advantage. Your films will look more polished and professional once you get rid of the shaky footage. Low-light photography also benefits from gimbals. You may use slower shutter speeds to capture more light without worrying about grainy movies because the gimbal maintains your phone absolutely still. In addition to these fundamental advantages, a lot of smartphone gimbals come equipped with functions like object tracking and pan follows, which let you experiment with a variety of artistic camera motions.