The DJI Osmo Mobile is DJI’s smartphone version of the popular Osmo handheld gimbal stabilizer. As the name suggests, the Osmo Mobile uses the same stabilization technology used in the Osmo series and adapts this technology for smartphone use.
The Osmo Mobile features the exact same gimbal handle as the original Osmo. Even the buttons and controls are identical. The only thing that differs is the 3-axis gimbal designed specifically for holding smartphones. Priced at $319, the Osmo Mobile is one of the priciest smartphone gimbals currently on the market. However, it justifies that steep price with some intelligent features that cannot be found on cheaper gimbals along with class-leading build quality and ergonomics.
Specifications
Weight: 488g (including battery and wrist strap)
Dimensions: 290 x 110 x 120mm
Supported smartphone widths: 59 x 84mm
Battery: 11.1V 980mAh
Angular vibration range: + / – 0.03 degree
Controllable range: pan: + / – 150 degree; roll: + / – 25 degree; tilt: -125 to +35 degree
Mechanical range: pan: + / – 165 degree; roll: – 50 to +90 degree; tilt: -140 to +50 degree
Max. Controllable speed: 120 degree/s
Bluetooth 4.0 compatible
Product Highlights
ActiveTrack technology built into the DJI GO app allows the Osmo Mobile to automatically keep your smartphone facing you as you move.
The Osmo Mobile’s 3-axis gimbal system smooths out the movements you make, turning every shot into cinematic video.
With a few taps, the Osmo Mobile motion timelapse feature shoots video showing the passing of time.
The Osmo Mobile lets you share special moments in real time using YouTube Live inside the DJI GO app.
Shoot better photos in low light, with powerful camera stabilization and full manual camera control.
The Osmo Mobile’s panorama function automatically captures and blends 9 separate photos together to create one stunning photo.
Used with its range of accessories, the Osmo Mobile can be mounted almost anywhere, giving you even more opportunities to get that perfect shot.
Enjoy more than just DJI GO. Osmo Mobile is open for developers to customize.
What’s In The Box
I bought my Osmo Mobile for $299 during Black Friday when DJI offered a free extra battery for it. One of the best times to shop for DJI products (that is, if you can wait) is at the end of the year — during the Black Friday and Christmas shopping seasons when DJI usually offers good deals on many of its products at its online store. The Osmo Mobile is also available in a tripod and extension rod bundle which costs more.
My unit came with a carrying bag, a charger cable, a wrist strap and user manuals. The carrying bag is a nice addition to the package and is great for storing or transporting the Osmo Mobile. It also has two mesh pockets inside for storing items such as the charger cable, spare batteries or an Osmo Base stand.
Build Quality and Ergonomics
Build quality on the Osmo Mobile is class-leading and is what you’d expect from a brand like DJI. The gimbal handle has very good ergonomics and is made of high quality plastic with a nice rubber grip. Fit and finishing are excellent and all buttons have a nice tactile feel to them. They are also well-placed and within easy reach of your fingers.
The 3-axis gimbal is made mostly out of aluminum and feels very sturdy. The clamp that is used to cradle the smartphone is controlled via an aluminum dial at the rear and provides a very secure grip on smartphones up to 5.5 inches in size. Bear in mind that this is not your typical selfie stick with a flimsy spring-loaded smartphone clamp. The grip provided by the clamp can be so strong that you need to be careful not to over tighten it especially for smartphones that have plastic bodies which could crack under the sheer pressure.
To protect your smartphone from scratches or dents, all surfaces on the gimbal that come into contact with it are covered with soft rubber pads. Once tightened the clamp never comes loose on its own. I’ve used the Osmo Mobile to shoot videos for up to an hour and have never had any issues with the clamp.
Unlike other Osmo gimbals, the 3-axis gimbal on the Osmo Mobile cannot be separated from the handle. This means it is not possible to use other DJI camera gimbal systems with the Osmo Mobile handle. On a positive note, the Osmo Mobile is a lot more future-proof than its other siblings since it has no built-in camera. Since camera technology on smartphones constantly improve every year, there is always the possibility of using the Osmo Mobile that you bought today with smartphones that have far superior image quality and performance five years from now.
Gimbal Performance
The 3-axis gimbal on the Osmo Mobile does a great job in stabilizing smartphone videos when used with the right settings. By “right settings” I mean if your smartphone has any image stabilization of its own, it has to be turned off. This is because a smartphone’s image stabilizer can work against or over-correct the stabilization provided by the Osmo Mobile. This problem is commonly seen in the iPhone 6 and 7 which makes shooting videos with the Osmo Mobile a bit harder than smartphones that don’t have image stabilization.
Another smaller factor that affects the gimbal’s performance is the size and weight of the smartphone used. Heavier smartphones tend to produce videos with a bit more bobbing and wobble. One way to improve on this is to simply walk as steadily as possible. This requires some practice and skill (and also the right ground conditions).
With the right settings and conditions, video stabilization is remarkably good and significantly better when compared to handheld shots. The Osmo Mobile is a great option if you’re a video blogger or simply want better and less shaky videos for your vacations, events and outings. It provides the same stabilization performance found on the more expensive Osmo and Osmo+ but at a much lower price point (if you don’t factor in the cost of your smartphone, of course).
The only issue that I have when using the Osmo Mobile relates mostly to a narrow field of view (FOV) which isn’t exactly a “problem” caused by the gimbal itself but rather due to the fact that smartphones generally come with cameras that have a narrow FOV. This isn’t to say that shooting videos with a narrow FOV is bad. It merely means that when shooting videos with smartphones, you are restricted to a narrow FOV since the camera cannot optically zoom in or out. Narrow FOVs and a longer focal length also make camera shake more noticeable.
For those who need optical zoom or wider FOVs, the Osmo+ with its 22-77mm zoom lens is an option worth considering. Thanks to its zoom lens, the Osmo+ is capable of narrow and wide FOVs, giving you the best of both worlds.
DJI Go app
The Osmo Mobile was designed to work with the DJI Go app and this is what sets it apart from its rivals — the app brings a whole suite of intelligent features to the Osmo Mobile. One key feature is ActiveTrack — a feature that is also found on DJI drones such as the Phantom 4 and Mavic Pro which allows the gimbal to track a particular subject. A user only needs to drag a square around the subject on the smartphone display and the Osmo Mobile will automatically start tracking the subject on its own.
This feature is great for people such as vloggers who work alone without the help of a camera operator. With the Osmo Mobile mounted on a stand or tripod, a vlogger can use ActiveTrack while in selfie mode or on another subject that is moving around in a room or a wide area.
Unfortunately, I was unable to use the ActiveTrack feature when I first got the Osmo Mobile because the latest version 3.1.0 of the DJI Go app for Android had some issues that cause the feature to be disabled. The only temporary solution was to install an older version of the app — 3.0.1 (V75). More details on how to do this can be found here. With the older version installed, ActiveTrack worked again and I was able to test it for this review. At the moment, DJI has yet to solve the ActiveTrack problem and has not given any date when it will be fixed.
Another cool feature that it has is the ability to create timelapses — a feature not found on many other gimbals. Mount the gimbal on a stand or tripod, set a start and end point for the timelapse and a few other timelapse settings and the Osmo Mobile will begin capturing the timelapse on its own.
Other neat features include shooting panoramas and broadcasting live YouTube videos.
Battery Life
The Osmo Mobile comes with a 11.1V 980mAh Lithium Ion Polymer battery that gives it about 4 1/2 hours of charge. An extra battery costs $40 and there is also a higher 1225mAh capacity version that sells for $45.
Although the batteries are reasonably affordable, I feel the real bottleneck in the Osmo Mobile when it comes to running time is actually the smartphone itself. It is pointless to bring along two or three Osmo batteries out for a shoot when smartphones typically last only one to two hours of continous video recording.
When your smartphone runs out of juice, it doesn’t matter how many fully charged Osmo batteries you have with you, the whole setup just won’t work until you get your smartphone charged up again. With DJI’s other camera gimbals such as the Osmo and Osmo+, all you need to do to continue shooting when you run low on power is to simply slot in a fully charged battery.
There is, however, a simple solution to this problem and that is to plug in a power bank to your smartphone while it sits on the gimbal. If you have a charger cable long enough, you can place the power bank in your pocket as it charges your smartphone while you continue shooting. This isn’t exactly the most elegant way of doing things since the charger cable can sometimes get in the way when you’re moving about but is the only solution I can think of for those wanting to use the Osmo Mobile for more than two hours of video recording and only have one smartphone to use.
Another easy solution is to slimply swap the first phone with another fully charged one but then again, not everyone people walks around with two smartphones.
Accessories
DJI has an entire range of accessories for its Osmo gimbals. This includes a tripod, extension rod, chest strap mount and a universal mount, among other things. These expand the usefulness of Osmo gimbals, giving them more functionality.
For example, with the universal mount and its cold shoe mounts, you can attach an LED light or shotgun microphone to the Osmo Mobile. There is also a suction mount that lets you mount any Osmo on smooth surfaces such as car windshields or glass windows.
DJI’s range of accessories for its Osmo products is probably the most comprehensive for any handheld gimbal stabilizer range currently in the market. And this is one major reason why many are attracted to DJI’s Osmo lineup.
Conclusion
The DJI Osmo Mobile is probably one of the best, if not the best, smartphone gimbal stabilizer available today. Although somewhat pricey, the Osmo Mobile brings the same stabilization technology and quality that was once available only in the more expensive Osmo gimbals to smartphone users. This includes smart features such as ActiveTrack, timelapses, panoramas and YouTube live videos which are mostly not available in other gimbals.
It also features excellent build quality and ergonomics that is matched only a by a few of its rivals. The only issues I can find with the Osmo Mobile mostly relate to the smartphones that I have tested with it. For example, with the Osmo Mobile you are mostly restricted to narrow field of views (FOV) since most smartphone do not have wide angle cameras. There are aftermarket wide angle filters that can be mounted on smartphones which can solve this problem somewhat. However, filters generally reduce the image quality and this is something that can be a bit of a letdown. Another issue with narrow FOVs is that camera shake tend to be more noticeable.
Perhaps the biggest issue with the Osmo Mobile is the operating time. Although Osmo batteries are quite affordable, it doesn’t help at all to have a spare Osmo battery on standby when a typical smartphone can only record one to two hours of video footage before it needs a recharge.
In other words, it is the battery capacity of your smartphone that determines how long you can use the Osmo Mobile. A simple solution to this problem would be to charge your smartphone as you’re using it on the gimbal but, as mentioned earlier, this isn’t the most elegant way of doing things since the charging cable can get in the way sometimes and affect the gimbal’s performance.
Despite these issues, the Osmo Mobile is still an excellent gimbal to have, especially for those who want stabilized video for their blogs, events or vacations but do not want to splash a fortune on the more expensive Osmo gimbals. The Osmo Mobile is also quite future-proof since it does not have a built-in camera. This means you can use it for years, thanks to its excellent build quality, and go through several smartphones as camera technology improves over time. Besides this, the Osmo Mobile is also compatible with a wide range of accessories which help expand its usefulness and functionality.
The Osmo Mobile is currently available at the DJI Store for $319 with one extra high capacity battery in conjunction with the DJI Christmas sale campaign. Click here for more details. Do take note that prices are subject to change at the DJI Store and that DJI often come up with different bundle deals from time to time.