The MOZA Mini-S is light, durable, and easy to use. I brought it with us to hang out with some friends over the weekend, and it was a hit! Once the phone is mounted to the gimbal properly and is connected with the Moza Genie App, you’re on your way to creating content. One of my favorite features of this gimbal is its ability to fold into a small footprint (5.12x2.68x7.68 inches), which is about the same size as my iPhone. Ultimately, my favorite part of this gimbal was how easy it was for others to use that had no previous experience. Overall, for $80 USD, this gimbal is a great value.
What’s in the box:
MOZA Mini-S
Charging cord
Instructions and warranty info
Gimbal Stand
The MOZA Mini-S is Extremely Easy to Use
Once you have received the Mini-S, charge up the battery and download the Moza Genie App from either the Apple store or Google Play store. When the red light is on, the Mini is charging, and once the red light is gone, you’ll know the Mini is charged up. When powered on, however, the light on the stick will be blue. After you have downloaded the app and the Mini-S is fully charged, connect the app with your device. This is all done through Bluetooth and is effortless because of the Genie App.
After the phone and gimbal are connected through the app, complete the gimbal calibrations to ensure your Mini-S is optimized for the specific device you are using. For example, I let my friend use the gimbal with his Samsung S9, but since the weight and size of this phone are different from mine, I need to redo the calibrations with the iPhone. The point of these gimbal motors is to compensate for gravity in a sense. Leaving your phone on its correct axis, just floating so the calibrations are vital if you want the best user experience.
Ok, so you’ve got your phone on the gimbal and want to start taking pictures and video. My advice is to play around with the app and familiarize yourself with the different settings between still photographs and video. The Genie App comes with four video modes built in- timelapse, object tracking, vertigo shot (dolly zoom), and inception mode (camera rolls on its axis) which helps when creating unique content.
Helpful tutorials from MOZA
After I messed around with the gimbal, I passed it around to get some feedback. Overall, the gimbal was easy to pick up, and others were able to operate it within five minutes or less. The joystick was the only obstacle. A few reactions of the gimbal were “I need this for vacation” and “this thing is lighter than I expected,” which made me realize this gimbal could fit so many applications.
Smartphone Gimbal meets Performance
I couldn’t believe how long the battery was lasting in the heat this past weekend. With a temperature around 85 Fahrenheit and in direct sunlight the battery only trickled away as we had fun. MOZA suggests the battery life will last eight hours with only a 1.5 hour charging time. This measurement sounds about right, we used the gimbal for 2 hours, and just above 70% battery life remained.
Mechanical Endpoint Range
Pan Axis - 270 degrees 100 degrees more than OSMO MOBILE 2
Roll Axis - 315 degrees 155 degrees more than OSMO MOBILE 2
Tilt Axis - 200 degress 80 degrees more than OSMO MOBILE 2
As you can see above, the MOZA Mini-S has far more motor range than DJI’s OSMO MOBILE 2 which is considered a direct competitor. In addition, the Mini-S is nearly half the cost at $80 compared to the OSMO MOBILE 2 at $140.
Battery Specs
Capacity - 2200 mAh
Life - 8 hrs
Charging time - 1.5 hrs
Overall Size and Weight
Weight - 1.1 lbs or 498 grams
Max payload (largest device possible) -.57 lbs or 260 grams
Gimbal dimensions unfolded - 4.6”x3.7”x12.5” (WxDxH)
Dimension folded - 5”x2.7”x7.7” (WxDxH)
MOZA’s Mini-S Supports many Phones
While using the Mini-S so far, we have used the Samsung Galaxy, iPhone 7+ and iPhone XS MAX and all of them worked flawlessly. Here is a list of supported devices from MOZA:
iphone X,8Plus,8,7Plus,7,6s Plus,6S,6Plus,6,5s
HUAWEI P10,P10 Plus, Mate 10 Pro,Mate 10
Samsung Galaxy S8, Note 8
Xiaomi Mi MIX 2, Mi
The phones we used were not listed by MOZA, but again, they worked fine. If you have any questions about whether or not your device will work with the Mini-S, I’d suggest contacting MOZA here.
Great Value, Portable, Easy UX, My New Go To Smartphone Gimbal
Overall, MOZA Mini-S is a fantastic little phone, stabilizer. For $80 you can’t beat it. I’ll be going on a trip next week when I’ll be able to compare this gimbal directly against the OSMO MOBILE 2 in the field. Based on the reactions and comments from this weekend, I can say this is a gimbal that most people will enjoy bringing with them on content generation trips or in daily life. I only have two issues. The first is out of my control, and that is for the gimbal to expand more like a selfie-stick. I saw this option in a few early YouTube reviews, but I guess MOZA decided against this when they rolled out the production model. Second, this should have come with a case. It’s not a big deal since it’s small and fits nearly in a back pocket, but for hiking, I’d like the gimbal to be more secure.