Personally, I can’t imagine using my smartphone as a baby steadicam anymore now that I have DJI’s Osmo Pocket 3 — we saw it everywhere at CES 2025, and its one-inch-type sensor offers image quality beyond what today’s smartphones allow.
But if you like the idea of sticking your phone into a set of stabilized motors on a stick, DJI’s just-announced $149 Osmo Mobile 7 Pro is the most feature-packed spin on the idea I’ve ever touched.
Now you can plop your selfie-stick down onto a surface with a new built-in tripod, pull eight inches of telescoping arm out of the top to give it reach, then snap on a new “Multifunctional Module” with a built-in computer vision camera to automatically track you, start and stop filming, and adjust framing, just by gesturing with your hands.
The Multifunctional Module unlocks other neat tricks too: it’s got a built-in fill light with adjustable color temperature that you can turn on by holding down the OM7 Pro’s side dial, and it’s a receiver for DJI’s excellent wireless microphones, including the DJI Mic Mini. It gets wirelessly powered right through DJI’s smartphone clamp thanks to a set of spring-loaded pogo pins, and you can attach it facing either direction if you want the assist for your phone’s selfie camera.
Perhaps most importantly, the module could dramatically reduce your need to use DJI’s app for filming. Previous gimbals required it for tracking, but historically it’s not always played nice with the newest camera features that smartphone makers offer. Now you can use your phone’s built-in camera app and still have it follow you autonomously. (DJI says its own Mimo app does now play nicer with the multi-lens switching, 4K60 recording and electronic image stabilization on more Android phones, but it’s more futureproof this way.)
The module’s tracking definitely works in my early tests, though the Multifunctional Module does get a bit hot — as it warns right on the module’s side. It’s also a bit of a battery drain. While DJI has upsized the battery to 12.06 watt-hours and quotes an upgraded 10 hours of battery life, the module cuts it in half to five hours with tracking, or four hours with tracking and the fill light on. (The Osmo Mobile 6’s 7.74Wh pack promised up to 6.5 hours, for comparison.)
I also like that the Osmo Mobile 7P still has a 1/4-inch tripod screw hole in addition to its built-in tripod, so you can mount it to other things, and you can still top up your phone from its USB-C port. I’m especially pleased to say that DJI will start selling a magnetic quick-release adapter so you can plop phones directly onto the gimbal instead of having to stretch apart a clamp — though that adapter won’t be compatible with the Multifunctional Module, and unlike that module, it won’t generally come in the box.
As far as I’m concerned, DJI’s own Osmo Pocket 3 sucked the air out of the room for smartphone gimbals, except in those cases where it’s easier to justify the $150 purchase for an existing phone instead of dropping $520 for better quality or because your iPhone workflow demands it. But I have to admit I’m jealous of the Osmo Mobile’s new tricks. Maybe DJI could make an Osmo Pocket 4 with a telescoping gimbal, pop-out tripod, and hand gestures?
The Pocket 3 ditched most of the Pocket and Pocket 2’s modular parts, proving that modularity wasn’t that product line’s real superpower, and I don’t think pocketability is necessarily it either. I think it’s having an ultra-steady camera that’s better and more versatile than today’s phones while still fitting into a shoulder bag, and I’d welcome even more of that versatility.
In addition to the $149 Osmo Mobile 7P, the company’s also announcing a new budget $89 Osmo Mobile 7 that comes in white rather than black. It also has the pull-out tripod, but ditches the telescoping selfie-stick, doesn’t come with the Multifunctional Module in the box, and doesn’t have the side dial to easily turn on the fill light and adjust focus or zoom.
Both should be shipping today from DJI’s website.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
