Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra review: a compact AI-powered smartphone stabiliser

The Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra is the 25th gimbal I’ve tested and reviewed to date for Digital Camera World. I’ve seen gimbals evolve to embrace the emergence of AI, turning them from a tool that enables a videographer to pan, tilt, and occasionally roll their camera/smartphone, to an effective robot camera operator that will follow their every move! More on that in the Performance section.

I’ve tested a wide range of stabilisers too, from budget smartphone shifters such as the Insta360 Flow 2 to heavy lifters like the budget-gobbling DJI RS 4 Pro review, which enables you to glide a heavy DSLR around almost effortlessly!

The subject of this review – the Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra – is almost identical to the previous year’s iSteady V3, but it boasts an innovative design feature that first appeared on the 2025’s more expensive iSteady M7 – a video feed from the front of the stabiliser that you can view on the rear control panel. More on this useful new feature in the next section.

Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra: Specifications

Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra: Price

The Hohem V3 Ultra retails at $189/£189 and is available in Shadow Black or Arctic White. The iSteady V3 Ultra’s $189 price tag is cheaper than the iSteady M7 ($269/£269), but more expensive than the similarly specced iSteady V3 ($129/£129). This is because the iSteady V3 Ultra’s removable remote control panel features a 1.22-inch touch-sensitive screen that first appeared on the more expensive iSteady M7. The older iSteady V3 did have a removable remote control panel, but it lacked a screen, so you could only use its joystick to control the gimbal’s moves, trigger recordings, and swap gimbal modes with the tap of a button.

So this leaves you with a choice to make. You can purchase the previous year’s iSteady V3 for $50/$50 less and still enjoy its ability to perform smooth tilts and pans, plus AI-powered face tracking. Or pay the extra $50/£50 for the newer iSteady V2 Ultra and enjoy a detachable remote with a touch-sensitive screen that also feeds a video signal from the AI-tracker to the rear of the gimbal. Or you can go for the iSteady M7 ($269/£269), which can lift a slightly heavier payload, has the upgraded detachable remote control panel, and can tilt through a wider range than the iSteady V3 series.

You can find my reviews of all of these stabilisers on this site, which should help you make an informed decision, but I did enjoy the freedom and ease the iSteady V3 Ultra’s touchscreen provided when it came to changing modes or swapping smartphone orientation between horizontal and vertical in a tap of an icon.

Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra: Design & Handling

At first glance, the iSteady V3 Ultra looks identical to the previous year’s iSteady V3. And given that Hohem has kept the V3 prefix rather than calling it the V4, this indicates that it is almost the same device. There are some differences, however. For starters, the older model could only pan between a range of -120° - 210°. The Hohem V3 Ultra is free to pan through 360°, which means that when tracking you via AI, it will always keep you in the frame.

The new V3 Ultra has the same compact dimensions as the V3, but it is slightly heavier by a negligible 8g. The biggest difference between the V3 and the V3 Ultra is that the latter has a touch-sensitive screen that also doubles up as a video feed from the AI sensor at the front of the gimbal. This video feed is handy when shooting selfies using the higher-specced cameras on the front of your smartphone.

When the iSteady V3 appeared in July 2024, it enabled the stabiliser to be more compact by storing its mini-tripod legs inside the main handle. Prior to this, many gimbals had a separate tripod that needed to be attached via a thread. The new V3 Ultra has the same compact tripod design as the older V3. Simply slide the three legs out of the handle to deploy the gimbal in free-standing mode. You can then walk and talk hands-free while the gimbal uses AI to track your every move.

While this tripod design is innovative, it’s not perfect. The tripod’s three metal legs are quite spindly, so when you extend the gimbal’s selfie stick to its full length, your gimbal-mounted smartphone might sway a little when being panned and tilted in tripod mode. Another gimbal that stores its tripod inside the handle is the Insta360 Flow 2, but this model’s built-in tripod legs are chunkier (and therefore sturdier).

The other key feature of the iSteady V3 Ultra is its detachable AI sensor. When filming via the Hohem Joy app, you don’t need to turn on the AI sensor. Simply draw a square around your subject on the screen of your smartphone, and the app will control the stabiliser to keep the subject in the centre of the frame.

You can also use gesture control to make the gimbal follow you when it’s deployed in tripod mode, as you’ll see in the Performance section (and its supporting video).

The cool thing about the AI sensor is that when it’s turned on, it will track your face when you are using a third-party app, such as the iPhone’s Camera app. This enables you to enjoy being tracked while filming in the iPhone Camera app’s Cinematic mode - something the Hohem Joy app can’t do. More on the app in the next section.

Oh, and the AI sensor also doubles up as a mini key light! By tapping a button on the side of the V3 Ultra, you can activate the sensor’s light and rotate the dial to control its intensity. It can also be set to three colour temperature presets: 6500K(Cool), 2700K(Warm), and 5000K(Neutral). The AI sensor’s built-in LED is only 2W, but it’s still powerful enough to illuminate a selfie when you’re holding the stabiliser at arm’s length.

Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra: Performance

To test the Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra, I took it into London so that I could film my usual model, Maddy (@runway.voguish), while making a range of camera moves. But first, I stopped off at the Barbican Centre to test out the gimbal’s AI-powered face tracking feature.

I popped the V3 Ultra on a step and deployed its mini tripod legs so that it could stand on its own. I fired up the Hohem Joy app on my gimbal-mounted iPhone 16 Pro. The app connected the iPhone automatically to the iSteady via Bluetooth. To record audio, I plugged the Boya Magic mic’s tiny receiver into the USB-C port on my iPhone. On some smartphone stabilisers, the tilt axis prohibits the use of a wireless mic receiver, but the iSteady V3 Ultra has plenty of clearance between the iPhone and the tilt motor.

I was then able to stand in front of the gimbal-mounted smartphone and make an OK gesture to make the iSteady track my face. By extending two fingers vertically, I was able to start recording footage. Thanks to the combination of the built-in tripod legs and the AI-powered face tracking, I was able to walk and talk freely while the iSteady V3 Ultra panned and tilted my iPhone 16 Pro to keep me in shot. By placing my palm towards the camera, I should have been able to stop the gimbal from tracking me so I could walk out of shot, but for some reason, it didn’t always recognise this particular gesture.

I also powered on the AI tracker and used it to control the gimbal while I recorded some Cinematic mode footage from the iPhone 16 Pro’s native camera app. This shooting mode added a nice background blur to my footage. The AI tracker is quite handy as a little status light helps you see when it has recognised a gesture by turning green.

When I tapped the trigger on the front of the iSteady V3 Ultra, the camera panned through 180º so I could film myself in selfie mode using the iPhone’s superior front-facing cameras. As a result, I couldn’t see the iPhone’s display. I was, however, able to see my face on the 1.22” screen on the rear of the gimbal, thanks to a video feed from the AI tracking module at the front of the gimbal. This enabled me to ensure that my face was in shot. I was even able to tap on my face on the display to trigger face tracking, which made it even easier to capture self-footage.

This video feed is a game-changer for the self-shooter who needs to talk to the camera while on the move. I was also able to wipe the remote control panel’s screen to leave the live video feed and access icons that enable you to change working modes (such as PF - Pan Follow) or zoom in and out using + and - icons. This electronic zoom only worked when I was shooting video in the Hohem Joy app.

The touchscreen was also very handy for fine-tuning the gimbal’s level. I noticed that the spirit level in my iPhone’s Camera app was indicating a slightly tilted horizon. I was able to use the touchscreen to tweak the roll axis’s angle by 0.5º to make the horizon perfectly level. A nice touch! As I’ve already mentioned, you can detach the control panel and use it to control the gimbal remotely (up to around 30 feet). I’ve not really encountered a shooting scenario where a remote control would be useful, but at least it’s an option.

I then popped across the river to meet up with Maddy so I could test out various gimbal modes, such as Pan Follow (where it pans to follow my hand movements without tilting up or down too much). I also used PTF (Pan, Tilt, Follow), where the camera also tilts up and down while panning. In both of these modes, the horizon stays completely level, which is hard to do when filming handheld without a gimbal. I also used the POV (Point of View) to make the gimbal pan, tilt, and roll. This mode captured more organic-looking moves that simulated Maddy’s point of view of the local architecture as she walked through an industrial area. Check out my supporting video to see the V3 Ultra and Maddy in action.

As a filmmaker who is long in the tooth, I really don’t like shooting video in vertical (portrait) orientation. However, I notice that vertical view reels in Instagram get a lot more love (and screen space) than horizontally shot footage. Normally, I shoot horizontal footage and then crop it in Final Cut Pro to create a vertical version. With the iSteady V3 Ultra, it was quick and easy to shoot vertical and horizontal versions of a scene by simply tapping an icon on the display. This caused the gimbal to quickly rotate the iPhone from portrait to landscape orientation and vice versa.

Talking of gimbal rotation, I did encounter an issue when trying to shoot a sideways tracking shot of Maddy walking down the street. Occasionally, the gimbal would roll my iPhone through 180º, which in effect turned Maddy upside down. This happened a few times, but only in one particular location. I guess it might have been a balancing issue where the gimbal was trying to find the optimal orientation for my iPhone. I needed to turn the iSteady V3 Ultra on and off a few times and re-attach the iPhone before I could get it to perform my desired tracking move, which was a little frustrating as I was working with a model who is paid by the hour!

The Hohem Joy app is designed to help you get more from the iSteady V3 Ultra. Some of the app’s extra modes are a bit gimmicky - such as the option to add raindrops to your footage that you can ‘control’ via gestures (if your subject gets the timing of their hand movements right!).

I did like the app’s one-tap Inception mode though, as it causes the gimbal to slowly rotate the camera via the roll axis as you track forward through a location. Check out my video to see that mode in action. The app also has a TimeWarp mode that captures high-speed ‘hyperlapse’ footage as you walk through a city, but in practice, this only captured a jerky, slightly sped-up version of the footage. The Insta360 Flow 2 Pro produced much faster and smoother hyperlapse footage when used in conjunction with its Insta360 app.

Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra: Verdict

I did encounter some issues with the iSteady V3 Ultra, such as it flipping 180º to suddenly capture upside-down footage (see video). I also found that the tilt angle had a relatively limited range of -35° to +45° (compared to the Insta360 Flow 2’s wider tilt range of -99° to 231°). However, on the whole, the iSteady V3 Ultra performed well, and I was able to record a wide range of cinematic camera moves such as pans, tilts, and POV shots when filming a model exploring the streets of London. I also enjoyed the freedom the V3 Ultra gave me to walk and talk to my gimbal-mounted iPhone 16 Pro while it panned and tilted to keep me in shot, courtesy of a very effective AI-powered face tracking module.

The detachable remote-control panel with its ability to send a video feed from the front of the gimbal makes the iSteady V3 Ultra stand out from the stabiliser crowd, especially as this feature was only previously available on the more expensive Hohem iSteady M7. If you already own an iSteady V3, then I don’t think the upgraded control panel makes the iSteady V3 Ultra a ‘must buy’, but if you’re looking for your first compact and affordable smartphone gimbal to take your camera moves to the next level, then the iSteady V3 Ultra is certainly recommended.

Alternatives

The Insta360 Flow 2 will keep your footage’s horizon level at all times, and a quick tap of a physical button switches your smartphone from landscape to portrait orientation to suit various social media formats such as vertical Instagram reels. Thanks to the built-in tripod and in-app AI-assisted group tracking, you can keep every family member in shot mode when filming holiday activities

Read our full Insta360 Flow 2 review

The Hohem iSteady V3 precedes the iSteady V3 Ultra by a year, so you can pick it up for $50/£50 less than the newer version. It will still use AI to track your face and perform the same moves as the iSteady V3 Ultra, but it lacks the newer model’s touch-screen remote with its live video feed.

Read our full Hohem iSteady V3 review