SNOPPA ATOM 3 Axis Folding Stabilizer for Smartphone

I spent quite a bit of time researching the market, reading reviews, etc. on various gimbals for use with my iPhone. I was particularly keen on portability – as they say, the best tool you have is the one you have with you – and for that reason the Snoppa Atom seemed ideal. I liked the idea that you could lock all the arms in place and the offset arm that holds the phone seemed like an elegant solution. The wireless charging looked like a plus too.I took it on a short holiday to try it out properly and unfortunately I don’t think it quite lives up to what it promises. Which is a shame – I really wanted it to be good. One issue is that the rubber clamp that holds the phone simply isn’t big enough to grip it securely. Even with a very thin case on my phone, it could barely hold onto it. They show ‘bare’ phones in all the videos of the unit but in this day and age, who doesn’t use a case to protect a £1000 phone! As a result, I was constantly scared that the phone would fall out – and that restricted how I used the gimbal. Also the locking arms are great for securing the gimbal for transport – but actually get in the way of using it. I couldn’t count the number of times I set the phone up ready to shoot some footage only to realise that the gimbal wasn’t ready because one of the arms had re-locked itself.I could live with the above and a few other little quirks. What broke the deal for me however was the gimbal regularly would start to drift horizontally in use. I’d seen this mentioned in a couple of reviews but figured that they would have fixed this in the firmware by the time I used it. Not so. It had to be recalibrated at least daily – sometimes every single time I used it. I’m primary a holiday snapper – and will usually have family in tow – so stopping to look for a flat surface to recalibrate my latest gadget every time we stopped somewhere went down like a lead balloon. Even then, some of the footage I took I realised was at an angle after the event – but too late by then.Pros:PortabilityLong battery lifeWireless charging abilityCons:Very regular recalibration requiredPhone grip/clamp not deep enough

Ok, great ideas, ticks a lot of boxes, but just not keen on way you need to hold it to the side for dolly shots and the tilt angle is not great.I would be keen to see what they do next, but this is a miss for me.