NEW: Neewer Smartphone Gimbal 3-Axis Handheld Stabilizer
Neewer are a Chinese company and makers of affordable filmmaking equipment. If you have read any of our previous articles, you’ll find the name appearing for items such as tripods and lights. They also make 3-axis gimbals and just last month Neewer brought a new one.
Neewer’s previous attempt at a smartphone gimbal had the look of a serious piece of filmmaking kit. Unfortunately, it didn’t work too well.
Now Neewer are back with a new model and it looks more like our favourite gimbals such as the Zhiyun and DJI Osmo. Let’s hope this time they have done a better job with the design.
Neewer Smartphone Gimbal – Features
No one is going to claim this new gimbal is a revolution in smartphone stabilization. Anyone who has been following iPhone filmmaking in the last couple of years will be very familiar with the look of this device.
One thing to note – this gimbal weighs somewhat less than the Zhiyun Smooth 4, weighing only 16.23 ounces (460 grams). By comparison, the Smooth 4 is 2.2 pounds (997 grams) – over twice the weight (although this includes the extras such as tripod feet that come with the Zhiyun). Meanwhile, the DJI Osmo 2 weighs about the same (485 grams).
Neewer say the built-in 3000 mAh battery runs continuously for 12 hours (same as the Zhiyun Smooth 4). You can also charge your from the stabilizer via a USB port.
The gimbal operates in 3 modes: Pan Following Mode, Following Mode and Locking Mode. This includes face and object tracking. The pan follow mode will track you but only on the left-to-right axis. The general follow mode will track using all axis. Locking mode means the gimbal won’t move at all.
Like the Zhiyun Smooth 4 and DJI Osmo 2, the Neewer gimbal has a zoom control on the handle. There’s also a joystick for tilting and panning.
The timelapse function allows you to set up your phone and gimbal so the camera will automatically move from one location to another.
A simple manual knob allows you to rotate the mounted smartphone from landscape to portrait mode. There’s also a 1/4 thread at the base of the gimbal for mounting it to a tripod, or to mount things to the gimbal (such as a mic or light).
The gimbal takes a payload up to 230 grams. Unfortunately doesn’t have a 360 degree pan capability.
You will need to use the gimbal with the Gimbal Pro app to access all the features.
Gimbal Pro App in iTunes Store
If you are looking for a budget-range gimbal, I did notice a Slickdeals code to reduce the price of this gimbal on Amazon.
There’s no test footage of this gimbal online, that I can see. This makes it hard for us to know how good the gimbal actually is, without testing ourselves. Why wouldn’t you send out a few to YouTubers to test?
We were actually contacted by another gimbal maker, but they wouldn’t send their ($90) gimbal for me to test unless I guaranteed it would appear on our best gimbals list. They also insisted we only direct traffic to their website. Every man has his price, I guess, but mine is currently higher than a $90 gimbal…
Read next: our Official Smartphone Filmmaking KIT LIST.
Eager to learn more?
Join our weekly newsletter featuring inspiring stories, no-budget filmmaking tips and comprehensive equipment reviews to help you turn your film projects into reality!
