Dji Osmo Mobile 2 Vs Zhiyun Smooth 4

Notation – Since publishing this article, theDJI Osmo Mobile 3 has been released onto the market place and blows both of the featured smartphone gimbal stabilizers out the water. Due to the superior performance, very similar cost tag, andexcellent reviews from the community nosotros would highly recommend the Osmo Mobile 3 over the Osmo Mobile 2 and the Smooth 4.

Smartphones take seen exponential growth over the concluding decade or then and with the camera sensors on mod smartphones becoming better and amend, more and more people are using them for vlogging and capturing footage. Due to this, nosotros are always seeing people reaching out asking about the best smartphone gimbal and in all honesty, we experience that at the time of writing, at that place are two dominant gimbals in the smartphone space, the DJI Osmo Mobile 2 and the Zhiyun Smooth iv.

Due to this, we accept decided to brand today's article a Zhiyun Smooth 4 vs DJI Osmo Mobile 2 comparing to share our thoughts with our readers as we are always seeing people accomplish out about both of these smartphone gimbals. At the time of writing, the are both absolutely outstanding gimbal stabilizers that are both very similar to each other while still way out ahead of what the competition is able to provide.

They share a big number of similarities and both take splendid reputations within the community. You can click here to read independent reviews of the DJI Osmo Mobile 2 or click here to read independent reviews of the Zhiyun Smooth 4 if you lot wish. They offer excellent insight into the opinions of the customs when it comes to both units and show how highly both of the stabilizers are regarded.

Although we did previously tie both of the gimbals equally the joint best smartphone gimbal on the market, the new firmware update for the Osmo Mobile 2 has pushed it out ahead of the Smoothen 4 in our opinion. Where the DJI gimbal previously had the accelerate with maximum load capacity and battery life, the Shine 4 previously had the advantage of a slightly amend balancing algorithm.

The latest firmware update for the Osmo Mobile 2 updates the tech on the DJI gimbal to put its functioning on par with the Shine 4 and due to the additional bombardment life and load capacity, information technology manages to sneak out ahead in our stance. That said if you do choose to buy either of these two gimbals, ensure that yous update them both to the latest firmware builds as both units have had multiple firmware updates since release.

Comparing Table

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Gimbal Type

3 Axis Handheld Smartphone Gimbal

Our Rating

Winner!

Epitome

Gimbal Blazon

3 Axis Handheld Smartphone Gimbal

Our Rating

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Gimbal Blazon

three Axis Handheld Smartphone Gimbal

Our Rating

Last update on 2022-03-eighteen / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

At present, to kicking things off, we always like to outset with out comparison table as it ordinarily offers a quick and easy way for our readers to glance over the key features of the gimbals. Every bit both the Osmo Mobile 2 and Shine 4 are so similar, there actually is non much between them other than the better bombardment life and load capacity on the DJI gimbal. Due to this, we volition be jumping straight into our in-depth look at the gimbals below rather than spending any more time going over the data in the comparison table.

Operation And Functionality

DJI CP.ZM.00000064.01 osmo Mobile 2 Handheld Smartphone Gimbal (Single Unit), Gray

Now, the majority of popular smartphones on the market right now usually come in betwixt 0.35 and 0.4 pounds of payload weight meaning that both of these gimbals are hands able to back up them. The Osmo Mobile ii comes in with a maximum load capacity of 0.53 pounds with the Polish iv not likewise far behind with a load capacity of 0.46 pounds.

Now, as nosotros mentioned earlier in the article, the DJI gimbal does definatley have the advantage when it comes to load chapters over the Zhiyun gimbal. Although both gimbals are able to back up the electric current range of smartphones from brands like Apple, Samsung, Google, LG, and Huawei, fifty-fifty if they are in heavy cases, the Smoothen 4 may struggle if you apply a heavy case equally well as a decent mountable smartphone lens.

On top of this, the additional load capacity of the DJI gimbal also helps to future proof yourself for hereafter smartphone upgrades. Although smartphones practice tend to go lighter equally technology becomes smaller, y'all never know and at that place is a chance the next-generation smartphones volition increment in weight. Knowing that your gimbal is able to take this due to its higher load chapters assuasive you to upgrade your smartphone without having to also upgrade your gimbal is another advantage helping the Osmo Mobile 2 score even more points.

Next up we have another area where DJI is dominant in and that is the maximum bombardment life of the gimbal. The Osmo Mobile 2 comes in with effectually 15 hours of power with each full charge whereas the Smooth iv comes in just behind it with twelve hours. In all honesty, we don't really put much weight into bombardment life anymore and although DJI wins on paper, twelve hours is more enough for the vast majority of people.

On top of this, more and more people who employ their smartphone for vlogging are starting to add a USB ability bank to their drove of smartphone camera accessories. This basically allows you to recharge your smartphone while on the go to ensure you can capture the footage y'all demand to without running out of ability. If your ability banking company has a high plenty output, you are besides able to use it to charge your gimbal also helping you keep both of your devices going.

At present, speaking of charging your smartphone while on the go, both the Osmo Mobile two and the Shine four fully support ii-style charging. This means that you can claw your smartphone upwards to either of these gimbals during utilise and use the gimbals battery to charge your phone while recording. As recording 4k video footage can quickly drain your battery this really is a godsend and can keep you lot going for hours longer even without using a USB power bank.

One surface area where both of the gimbals announced to be tied on newspaper is in the recharge time with both gimbals needing iii hours to recharge from empty to full via a wall-based power outlet. Now, although this is a little nit-picky, the boosted three hours of maximum battery life for the Osmo Mobile two is being recharged in these iii hours meaning you get more value with the DJI gimbal over the Zhiyun gimbal.

At present, we always love showing off real examples of video footage that has been recorded using the gimbals we are featuring and today is no different. All of the clips in the video above take been recorded using the DJI Osmo Mobile 2 and showcase exactly what you tin can await.

This is the one expanse that the DJI previously lagged behind the Zhiyun gimbal until DJI patched the software on the Osmo Mobile two. The clips in the sample video above were all recorded with the latest firmware build at the time of writing and show the excellent levels of image stabilization on offer. If yous are a travel vlogger or in a niche where you similar to use slow cinematic video footage then the clips above show how yous can use the DJI gimbal to better the image quality of your video. With both the vlogging space and the social media influencer infinite becoming more and more competitive, improving your image quality can aid to make sure anyone who does see your content ends up subscribing or following you.

The whole organisation is extremely quick providing you with smooth, fluid image stabilization that is totally free from lag as well. The gimbal sensors on the Osmo Mobile two are very similar to the ones on the Shine 4 and are extremely quick to detect any motions. The balancing algorithm then kicks in and tells the gimbal motors how best to recoup for the detected movement and ensures your smartphone stays level resulting in smoothen video footage.

The video footage to a higher place is probably our favorite sample footage from the Zhiyun Smooth 4 and equally you tin can come across, its paradigm stabilization is to the aforementioned level of the Osmo Mobile 2. Every bit most people care more about the actual image quality they are able to capture than the battery life or load chapters of a gimbal, this is the expanse where Zhiyun has e'er dominated.

With DJI keep pushing the boundaries to knock Zhiyun off the top spot and go the ascendant gimbal brand they were quick to push out an update so their Osmo Mobile ii matched the quality of the Polish 4. The next factor most people care about in their gimbals is usually the price tag and at the time of writing, both gimbals have the exact aforementioned price tag ways that the college load capacity and battery life of the DJI gimbal pushes information technology ahead of the Zhiyun in our opinion.

The Zhiyun system works in a very similar way to the DJI system ensuring that you are able to go the smoothest possible paradigm stabilization every bit quickly equally possible. Both the DJI and Zhiyun balancing algorithms along with the latest Moza gimbals are mode out alee of the competing brands at the time of writing and in all honesty, we doubt that this will change anytime shortly.

User Interface And Command System

Now, both of these gimbals accept a very different arroyo to their control interface system with each having their advantages over the other. Depending on what you are going to be using the gimbal for as well as your level of feel with using gimbals may play a part in the product that you actually choose to be your smartphone gimbal of pick.

Although we volition be going over information technology in more than detail below, the brusque version is that if you lot accept never used a gimbal stabilizer before and are an entry-level videographer, the DJI Osmo Mobile 2 has the easier system. If you are more of an avant-garde level videographer and want to be able to customize your gimbal and tweak settings as yous see fit then the Zhiyun Shine 4 probably has the better control system for you.

The system in the epitome above is the control interface for the Osmo Mobile ii and as you lot tin see, DJI has taken the minimalist arroyo and kept everything as easy as possible. If you are a new gimbal user and then this can definatley play right into your favor as you can literally take the Osmo Mobile 2 out of the box and pretty much have a good idea of what you are doing merely by looking at it.

You can learn th basics of the system within minutes and be out and about capturing any video footage that you require very quickly. On the flip side of this though, customizing gimbal settings or avant-garde controls directly from the gimbal tin can definatley be a pain.

The system in the epitome above is the control interface for the Zhiyun Smooth 4 and as you can see, it has a whole bunch more to offer. Although this may look a little intimidating to you if you are new to gimbals, it is actually surprisingly unproblematic but will take a footling longer to learn than the DJI system covered above.

Although an entry-level gimbal user will be able to get everything that they need out of the Zhiyun system and simply not demand the majority of information technology, where it really shines is for the advanced gimbal users. The organization makes information technology easy to control your gimbal and tweak it as required during your sessions to ensure that you get exactly what you want.

The whole system has been put together very well and Zhiyun has done a great job of ensuring that information technology is as responsive in wet or cold conditions as it is in ideal conditions too. This means that no matter what you lot are recording in, you will have maximum command over your smartphone gimbal. The magic wheel also offers the standard functionality offering another advantage over the DJIs arrangement but depending on what you are using your gimbal for, this may never be used anyway.

Smartphone App

When it comes to smartphone apps, both DJI and Zhiyun are pretty much cervix at neck these days. Although around a year ago the Zhiyun app was a total waste of time, information technology has been totally overhauled to correct the diverse issues that it had as well as meliorate its navigation menu likewise as add some boosted functionality to it too.

On top of this, when it comes to smartphone gimbal stabilizers, the smartphone apps tend to missout on one of their biggest uses, their wireless remote control functionality. On a gimbal for a mirrorless or DSLR camera, you can remotely command the head of the gimbal as required for whatsoever you are doing. With a smartphone gimbal, your phone is mounted to the bodily gimbal so if you lot are close plenty to your phone to use the remote you are close enough to the gimbal to manually practice it anyway.

Both apps as well offering some quick and easy access to your gimbal settings allowing you lot to tweak their performance if required. Now, we would rate this higher for the DJI app just because its actual user interface on the gimbal itself is so limited. On top of this though, both of the gimbals come with a great default config when shipped that has been designed to be optimal for use with smartphones anyway and so the majority of people will never need to tweak their settings.

Balancing

Then many people who are new to using a handheld gimbal stabilizer seem to get worried about really balancing their gimbals simply there really is no demand. Modern gimbals are great bits of kit with quick and like shooting fish in a barrel balancing systems that are very straight forward. On top of this, both the Osmo Mobile 2 and the Smooth 4 are smartphone gimbals meaning they merely need to balance around 0.four pounds of load capacity making the whole process fifty-fifty easier.

Although slightly dissimilar from each other, both the DJI and Zhiyun arrangement is very easy and the caption in the included user manuals clearly goes over the whole procedure. Although nosotros incertitude information technology, if you practice end up running into problem and then in that location are a bunch of video tutorials on YouTube of how to balance both of the gimbals too.

Build Quality And Blueprint

When it comes to a smartphone gimbal, one of the most of import and often overlooked pattern features that we like to meet is a quick and piece of cake axis adjustment then yous can switch your smartphone betwixt landscape and portrait equally required. Equally we mentioned earlier, many of the people who look to add a gimbal to their smartphone accessories are doing then for YouTube and social media.

Equally you probably know, landscape video footage fits the aspect ratio for YouTube much better than portrait and portrait fits sites similar Instagram much ameliorate than Landscape. Being able to speedily and hands rotate your gimbal head through ninety degrees to switch between both is a solid feature that is supported on both the Osmo Mobile 2 and the Smooth four.

The actual design of both of the gimbals pretty much sticks to the standard handheld gimbal setup with no real innovation between them. This is commonplace these days as the vast majority of handheld gimbals that brands release onto the market place are simply variations of each other when it comes to the design so we volition exist tieing both gimbals in the design category.

Another area where we are going to call a tie is on the actual build quality every bit although there are some very small differences between the two gimbals, they each have tiny advantages over each other that are so modest it is simply easier to tie them. That said, unlike some competing products, both the Osmo Mobile 2 and the Polish four are lightweight and pretty small meaning they are easy to travel with if needed.

Their lightweight as well means that you are able to hold the gimbals for long periods of fourth dimension with your smartphone mounted to them without having any problems. Some competing gimbals in the smartphone infinite are yet pretty heavy significant that after using them for a brusque fourth dimension your paw and arm can commencement to anguish. Thankfully, this is non an outcome with either of the featured gimbals and they are both lightweight.

As both the Osmo Mobile 2 and Smooth 4 are made from nearly identical materials they are both just as robust as each other too. Although the advancements in plastic polymers and metal alloys over the last few years accept made this commonplace for gimbals, keeping the products as lightweight while too ensuring they are robust at the aforementioned fourth dimension is still pretty rare merely both DJI and Zhiyun have achieved it.

Now, the terminal area that we want to talk about regarding the build quality of the gimbals is their handles and it is another area where we have decided to tie them as it volition come downward to personal preference. If you are going to have to concur your gimbal for long periods of time then a comfortable handle is important but we take seen reports from people saying they prefer one or the other simply this is downward to personal preference and in our stance, both gimbals take a comfy handle.

Our Verdict

That brings our ultimate Zhiyun Smooth 4 vs DJI Osmo Mobile 2 comparison to an end and as you tin can probably tell by at present, we experience that theDJI Osmo Mobile ii manages to pull our alee of the Zhiyun Smoothen four due to having so many areas where it is the same as the Smooth 4 while also having the higher load capacity and battery life.

That said, we nonetheless experience that either of these smartphone gimbals will make a bang-up addition to your smartphone photographic camera accessories. They both provide fantabulous image stabilization that can definatley assist to improve your image quality but the DJI gimbal just sneaks out ahead of the Zhiyun gimbal by the smallest margin.

If you still can't make your mind up then both of the gimbals also have an outstanding reputation within the community and you can click here to read independent reviews of the DJI Osmo Mobile two or y'all canclick hither to read independent reviews of the Zhiyun Smooth 4. On elevation of that, nosotros too have our own dedicated Osmo Mobile 2 review equally well as a review of the Smooth iv that you tin can read too.

Taking the fourth dimension to read some of those reviews may help you make your listen up as they offer an excellent insight into how both of the units piece of work from people who utilize them as their go-to smartphone gimbals of choice on a regular basis. You can spend a few minutes skimming reviews for each product and gain a fair amount of information on each product that makes assist you lot select the one you lot want to purchase.