DJI Osmo Mobile 8 review: A pro-grade phone gimbal that keeps up with ambitious creators without breaking the bank

A phone can take on most content creation jobs these days, so why not give it the support it needs – that's the theory behind a gimbal which is a camera stabilizer that helps produce more professional content.

This is a device of many generations, but since the Osmo Mobile 6 – or OM6 – DJI has brought a professional feel with an analog control wheel as well as the joystick. This can, for example, use NFC to take control of the 'focus' effect in on the phone so the device gives you wider cinematographic controls.

This newest model has other updates too – a fill light and subject tracking system that can also help connect to any of the DJI Mics (not just the Mic Mini), as well as (new for this generation) an infinitely rotating pan, so you can be tracked continuously around the device if you need.

USB-C charging (and the ability to charge your phone via the same port) all add up to make a lot of appeal, but is this the right choice if you're looking for more stable phone video?

DJI Osmo Mobile 8: Pricing

The Osmo Mobile 8, or OM8, has relatively high end features but does not come at the highest price in this category, so I'd put it down as good value too.

The obvious competitor is the Insta360 Flow 2 Pro, which – at the time I tested the device – was one of the few other devices that offered Apple DockKit compatibility and 360-degree panning, but came in for slightly more cash than the OM8.

DJI Osmo Mobile 8: Specs

DJI Osmo Mobile 8: Build and handling

I've said it before (and I said it with the OM7) – DJI is very confident in building a convincingly professional-feeling product, even in this category, which is awash with cheap plasticky devices. There is a reassuringly robust feeling about this design, which has good ergonomics around the trigger (which activates the stabilization and some other functions).

Despite its compact size, the design manages to include a decent-length telescopic extension pole so you can get your phone camera above a crowd, and a built-in tripod that can pull out of the base and pop back in. That's a lot of physical functionality and in my testing over a few months it survived admirably.

Physical controls amount to a thumbwheel (handy for things you might tweak in a linear scale, like focus), a thumb stick (used for directing the phone/camera), and three simple buttons. These mean you can start and stop recording, even on an iPhone in the normal camera app, without reaching up for the screen.

DJI provides an app, Mimo, as well as letting you use the phone's own app, for that slightly more professional feel – or at least that's how I interpreted the experience. Mimo, to be fair, is also equipped with a host of filters and even beauty adjustments so perhaps it's just as Gen-Z as anything else out there, but if, like me, you are looking to access the premium features (or find features like D-Log from your drones) then Mimo is the place to look.

Mimo, of course, is also the tool which offers remote control of all DJI's action cameras, so if you have any of the OM8's siblings then the app might just need an update, and will already be familiar to you.

Finally, there is the clip-on, clip-off fill light (or should I say 'Multifunction Module' we have seen on previous Osmo Mobile devices. It has the fancy name because it also features a built-in camera used to help the system's AI spot people and pets (and gesture commands).

DJI Osmo Mobile 8: Performance

Whether I opted to use my phone's camera app (I was testing with an Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max) or the DJI Mimo app, I found the experience slick and straightforward.

Battery life certainly seemed to last well in my tests – I didn't run it out in any shoots – however whether it actually can last exactly ten hours seems somewhat unrealistic to ask.

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Fill light set at at its lowest setting

The fill light is enough to provide a pin-prick of a catchlight in daylight, and not too much more at its lowest setting in low daylight...

Fill light set at at its highest setting

...but, up at its highest setting, the fill light is actually enough to spoil a shot at close range, which makes it useful that there are several steps.

The design allows for low-angle shots (holding the camera near the ground) and tracking pets as well as people.

The system is also pretty quick to get started, turning itself on when you open it up (especially prompt if you're prepared to leave the grip attached to your phone, though my phone case was a bit too big for it which is why you see my iPhone Pro Max very exposed in the test pictures).

When I tried it, I also found the system perfectly capable of lifting a small plug-in SSD drive in the USB-C socket.

DJI Osmo Mobile 8: Overall verdict

The DJI Osmo Mobile 8 has been good enough to help me turn my iPhone Pro Max into a professional shooting rig. I've shot music videos and lengthy 4K videos on it. Sure, some will look closely to tell-tale signs of depth of field that tend to give away phone cameras, but – as it turns out – for most casual viewers, the evidence comes more readily from the less-than-steady hold people tend to have on their phones.

The OM8 doesn't just provide a solution to that issue, but keeps doing so all the way up the scale of production, so while you get something that will help track you for a one-person shoot, you'll also be able to take advantage of the subject tracking when you're guerrilla shooting a music video in a London graveyard.

It's worth remembering, too, that if you're used to EIS – Electronic Image Stabilization – a gimbal like this gets you the full image resolution.

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