Zhiyun - Smooth-Q 3-Axis Handheld Gimbal Stabilizer - Black

Not designed for the latest bigger phones. Can't handle the weight and size. It doesn't tell you these details until you open the box and read the manual. With my phone and case...I guess it exceeds the maximum payload. 201g+ Note9 512GB plus the case. The gimbal won't even respond but it tries to. It just hesitates and twitches when you try to move the joystick... because the phone and case exceeds the weight. Other than that...it's perfect for soneone with a lighter phone with a screensize under 6.0". Note 9 is 6.3 or 6.4 with the case.

Best budget smartphone gimbal! My only complaint is my 11Pro Max is a little too heavy for it so I had to buy a counterweight but other than that it operates great.

It's not the best, but it's serviceable once you figure out some of the quirks. The big issue, bought a separate go pro adapter, which fits fine, and works great when shooting in Narrow, but when using Normal or Wide, the weight in the front is in the shot. See the photo. First time I used it in this manner was a couple weeks ago at Disneyland. Super frustrating, and I have no clue how to fix it before we go on our next vacation. Usually I shoot narrow, but on trips, I go wider. Would take it back if I could.

The overall quality of the product is decent, for the price it’s hard to expect anything else. When I compare with the DJI Osmo Mobile the quality of the DJI gimbal is far superior. This one feels a bit cheap in the hand. The app is a bit glitchy but gets the job done. Overall I would say if you found a deal and got this for under $100 then it’s worth it, but anything over $100 just get the Osmo mobile.

My review title pretty much sums this up. This is a relatively cheap gimbal, as most similar gimbals can easily be over $200. I bought this to use on multiple trips to Big Sur, Yosemite, and Lake Tahoe. Coupled with the brilliant camera on the Galaxy S8 (I'm writing this review 1.5 years later), this thing is GREAT for the purpose. Standing alone as a product (in other words, excluding the app, I will address that later), this is great for phones and will get you beautiful smooth footage almost every time. As long as you dont accidentally turn it on without the phone installed (which I did a couple times.....oops), the motors are silent and work very well. The joystick is extremely helpful, and its awesome the thing can be used as an external battery pack. And the the tripod thread on the bottom is a godsend. I would attach this thing to a mini flexible tripod I had and could get great group photos on a timer, perfectly stabilized left-right pans, and good standing footage anywhere. If you buy this, I highly recommend having a mini tripod too. Some criticisms I have are: 1) I wish it could be extended just a little farther out, as sometimes I will catch the tail end of the gimbal in some shots when panning around. 2) Had a rubberized grip or something that wasnt matte plastic. When hiking with this, sweaty hands make this slippery. 3) It came with a PLASTIC attachment/adapter for gopros. I know this is not necessarily the products fault, but all the gopro attachments Ive seen with this are metal of a solid slab of metal. And coupled with a gopro hero 6, its too heavy. A plastic adapter + weight of gopro is basically equivalent to a phone. Why does it have to be metal?! Aside from that, I just wish Zhiyun sold an adapter made by them. All these 3rd party attachments have such shady and spotty reviews, I dont trust them. If Zhiyun sold their own, Id gladly buy one from them, knowing it was from a company that knows the capabilities of its own products. So a couple other things to address about this. The charging cable is flat which is a nice plus!! The carrying case is a great plus as well! Its not the highest quality case ever and can get scuffed pretty easily. But better the case than your gimbal right? The fact its included is something I love. Battery life is great as well. I've gone a whole week, using this thing throughout every day, without charging it. And it still seems to hold up fine. The one thing I will say is that knowing its battery life is a little mysterious. I went a whole month without charging it and it still trudged on just fine and never would blink yellow for a charge. Then one day it just wouldnt turn on. So I charged it, then it was fine. Idk, what Im saying is, I wish there was a better way for battery life indication. Like 5 dot lights on the side or something. Lastly, the app. Yikes.....the dreaded app. Simply put, dont use it. Dont download it, dont even bother. Its just downright terrible. The tracking is a cool idea, and being able to use the zoom in/out button on the gimbal is enticing, but honestly. The frustration the app brings is not even worth it. I tried it on both an iphone and my own galaxy, and it sucked for both. If the app was as amazing as the product itself, this would be a 7/5 star thing!!!!! But because the app is just flatout garbage, its a -1 star for a 5 star product. I do recommend this for anyone who wants their footage to look more professional and smooth!

We bought this to take better videos of our outings and start vlogging our adventures. We tried vlogging with our Sony a5100 camera several times in the past but we hated the shakiness and how close up the shots were. Also we would have too many things with us. Our canon 70D, our cellphones, our Sony and sometimes tripods depending on where we were going. This eliminated all of those factors for us. Now we only need our phones and tripods aren't necessary. For pictures we may bring the 70d, but rarely do. We did purchase a sturdy heavy duty extendable selfie stick to attach to the bottom to add length for those low close to the action shots. It adds enough length without extending. We couldn't be happier. The battery lasts forever. When we took it out the box it was practically charged all the way, we have not had to charge it yet. It comes with a nice case for carrying around. It can also charge your cellphone if it runs low on battery. Our footage from just our 6splus iPhones are amazing, clear, crisp and SMOOTH! I highly recommend if you want to upgrade the quality of phone videos you create. We can also attach our GoPro with a separate attachment. Once we get the full hang of it, we will be purchasing the zhiyun gimbal for our camera. P.S. For those who may not watch tons of YouTube review videos before purchasing. Make sure you stabilize your camera in the gimbal before you operate it. If not you will be putting stress on the motors and could potentially damage it. That goes for any gimbal, not just this one. Also never turn it on without your phone or GoPro already attached. Same deal.

On the product alone, I give 5 stars - but I knocked it down a star because I own an iPhone 7 plus (a big phone). There was nothing that said it was not supported, and indeed technically it is. But I almost returned the unit because I couldn't get it to work right. With a big phone mounted it overwhelms the gimbal and you need to tweak it ever so carefully. It works after much tweaking but the size is an issue also because you have to expand the holder to its limit and it occassionally impedes (hits), the gimbal arm - which is exactly what you don't want to have happen. I decided to keep it, because even with its quirks it can still do the job. The price is good, I've never seen it go on sale - and online prices are the same or higher elsewhere. I would recommend this product, but I'd warn people with big phones that it's a hassle to calibrate.

As my youtube channel continues to grow, so does the equipment I use to film those videos. Now I'm not a big youtuber who makes enough extra income a month to call this a job, but I'm getting closer to my goal. With that said it was time to look into some sort of handheld gimbal stabilization to take more cinematic footage and I stumbled across this little gadget. It's called the Smooth Q by Zhiyun which has a 3 Axis Gimbal and sells for a great price of around $139 through major retailers like Best Buy. In the past few days I have taken some pretty cool videos of the kids and other clips for youtube and it has performed flawlessly. I have not even had time to really go through all of the features available and will update them with time. The ZY play app for IOS and android will connect the Gimbal t your smartphone for some really cool extra perks, like time lapse, slow mo, moving time lapse and much more. Although using this with the app I did notice a significant drop in battery on my iPhone 7 plus. But the app is not required to use the gimbal. The battery life has a rating of about 12 hours and since I charged it 2 days ago it has continued to work within this range. I also have a GoPro that works excellent with this and has made the footage look crisp and much smoother. It has a bottom mounting thread to support most tripods and monopod extensions as well. Another cool feature is object tracking which helps the gimbal and phone camera follow a target and focus automatically. The Gimbal fits most smartphones and select action cameras weighing up to 7.7 oz and up to 3.3" wide. ​This is by far the best purchase I have made for 2017 aside from the DJI Spark. The price point is great and won't leave your wallet feeling empty after the purchase and it works just as great if not better than the other high priced models out there today.