Battery Life
Battery life can make or break your shoot day, especially if you’re running around filming for hours at a time. While we didn’t fully drain each gimbal in our test, we did compare the manufacturer’s estimates and tested how well each handled during moderate use.
The Hohem iSteady M7 stands out with the longest battery life, clocking in at around 12 hours under ideal conditions. That’s a full day of filming without needing a top-up, which is great if you’re out shooting events, weddings, or on-location content.
Next up are the DJI Osmo Mobile 7P and the Insta360 Flow 2 Pro, both rated at 10 hours. That’s still solid for most creators and should get you through a long shoot without anxiety about power running out.
The Zhiyun Smooth 5S AI has the shortest battery life of the group at around 7 hours, which isn’t bad by any means, but it does mean you might want to carry a power bank or be strategic about when you power it on and off.
Fortunately, all four gimbals have USB-C passthrough charging, which is a game-changer. You can plug in a power bank while filming to extend your runtime indefinitely. So even if the battery runs low, you're not totally out of luck mid-shoot.
Wireless Microphones
If you're stepping away from the camera or want cleaner, more professional-sounding audio, you’ll probably want to pair your gimbal with a wireless mic. But depending on which gimbal you’re using, and how you’re orienting your phone, this can get a little tricky.
The Insta360 Flow 2 Pro has some room at the base where you can plug in a mic, and it works best when shooting in horizontal mode. Vertical orientation is a bit tighter, and you might run out of space or risk knocking the mic out if you’re not careful.
The Hohem iSteady M7 and Zhiyun Smooth 5S AI both struggle a bit in this area. Because of how the phone sits in the cradle, there’s no real space underneath for plugging into the phone’s USB-C or Lightning port when shooting horizontally. If you plan to use an external mic with either of these, your best bet is a Bluetooth mic or shooting vertically with some workaround space.
The DJI Osmo Mobile 7P totally nails this. Since it’s part of the DJI ecosystem, you can pair the DJI Wireless Mic via Bluetooth directly to the gimbal and the DJI Mimo app with no cords or extra adapters. It’s the cleanest and most integrated audio solution of the bunch and a big win for creators who need to film themselves and still sound great.
Gesture Control + App Flexibility
One of the coolest features across all four of these gimbals is gesture control. Instead of walking back and forth to press record or adjust tracking, you can simply raise your hand or make a quick motion to trigger commands. That means you can start or stop tracking, take a photo, or start a video without ever touching the gimbal again.
This is so darn good if you’re filming solo, especially for YouTube intros, workout content, tutorials: anything where you’re both behind and in front of the camera. The gesture systems work really well across the board, but we found that Hohem and DJI had the most responsive systems in our tests.
Another huge bonus is you’re not locked into using the manufacturer’s camera apps to access gesture controls. You can use apps like the Moment Pro Camera App or even your phone’s native camera app in most cases. That means you’re free to shoot in Log format, access manual controls, or stick with a familiar workflow while still taking advantage of the smart features built into your gimbal.
AI Tracking
AI tracking is one of those features that can make a gimbal feel futuristic (or plain annoying). So we tested how each gimbal handled following a moving subject, and the results were mixed.
The Hohem iSteady M7 was a surprise standout here. You can literally draw a box around your subject using the remote screen, and it does an incredible job of locking on and staying with them, even when they get small in the frame or move unpredictably. It was quick, accurate, and worked at distances where most other trackers would’ve given up.
The Zhiyun Smooth 5S AI, on the other hand, struggled a lot oddly. Even after selecting the subject, the app had a hard time keeping focus. The tracking would lose the person, drift off target, or simply fail to recognize motion in more dynamic scenes. Eventually, it did catch up, but it took way more effort than the others.
Both the DJI Osmo Mobile 7P and the Insta360 Flow 2 Pro performed pretty perfectly. They locked onto subjects instantly, adjusted smoothly to changes in movement, and never felt like they were hunting or second-guessing. These two easily tied for the most reliable, set-it-and-forget-it tracking experience—especially helpful for creators filming themselves.
How Smooth Are the Gimbals?
All the AI in the world doesn’t matter if your footage looks shaky. So we did a blind comparison of stabilized footage from all four gimbals (like running shots, slow-motion moves, walking sequences_ and found that they’re all pretty comparable when it comes to basic stabilization.
That said, a few design features made some gimbals easier to get smooth footage than others. The DJI Osmo Mobile 7Pand Insta360 Flow 2 Pro both include a bendable “elbow” on their extension poles. That extra pivot point gives you more leverage and helps you glide your movements with more control, especially for those sweeping or low-angle shots.
The Hohem and Zhiyun gimbals don’t have that extra joint, but their larger, heavier bodies actually help absorb some shakiness. They’re built like mini tanks, which makes them naturally more stable but also bulkier to maneuver. So if you're after buttery-smooth shots, all of them can deliver, but the shooting experience differs quite a bit depending on how you like to operate the gimbal.
