Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra Review – Smartphone Gimbal with App-Free Multimodal Tracking and Remote

Gimbal Review

by Nino LeitnerSeptember 25^th, 2025

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The Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra is a new smartphone gimbal that we decided to test across real-world solo shooting scenarios. The foldable design, detachable 1.22-inch touchscreen remote with live AI preview, and true 360° pan make it one of the most capable compact phone gimbals we have used. It is not flawless: tilt clearance and payload geometry still limit heavy lens add-ons, and battery life shortens once the tracker and fill light are in play. But let’s dive right in – here is our balanced take.

Let me get this out of the way: I don’t like to be tethered to proprietary apps when using a smartphone gimbal. The good news is that Hohem is leaning into a “no-app-required” workflow for tracking, and that choice pays off. Being able to lock subject tracking from the gimbal’s own module while running our preferred camera apps kept shoots simple and flexible. The V3 Ultra is a travel-friendly stabilizer aimed at creators who want to move fast without giving up control.

Why are we testing a smartphone gimbal?

At CineD, we usually cover filmmaking tools built for professional workflows, ranging from mirrorless cameras to cinema rigs. Smartphone gimbals like the iSteady V3 Ultra are not our typical focus, because many of our readers do not rely on phones for their main productions. That said, times are changing: smartphones keep gaining serious video features, and a growing number of professionals also use them for behind-the-scenes content, quick social posts, or even entire projects when discretion and portability matter. Looking at gimbals like this therefore makes sense in 2025, both to understand where the technology is heading and to acknowledge how phone-based filmmaking is evolving. So expect more reviews like this one in the near future.

Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra design considerations and setup

The iSteady V3 Ultra folds small and weighs around 430 g, so it slips into a side pocket or small pouch. Built-in tripod legs slide out of the handle, which means no separate mini-tripod to lose. This is a very smart idea – I can’t tell you how often I’ve misplaced the detachable legs of various DJI gimbals over the years. Yes, because those legs need space within the grip, this potentially costs battery capacity, but I don’t see this as a big problem in a smartphone gimbal whose brushless motors are definitely under less strain than your typical mirrorless gimbal motors (and therefore they need a higher-capacity battery).

The gimbal has an extension rod built in which can be extended from the top of the grip, and it reaches roughly 205 mm for higher vantage points, overheads, or quick “crane” reveals. While I love to have this also built into the gimbal, I wish the rod could be extended even further for various usage scenarios, but it’s certainly very useful as it is. I am a particular fan of the hinge on top of the rod, which allows you to angle / tilt the gimbal, which means you don’t have to turn into a pretzel when you are going for some unusual high-vantage point angles.

The grip is definitely not too long, and I sometimes felt like for my hands (which are on the larger side) it could be one or two centimeters longer at the bottom. However after using the iSteady for a while I got used to it and it didn’t bother me anymore, this again was a preference based on my regular usage of larger gimbals like a DJI RS4 Pro with mirrorless cameras, which has a considerably longer grip due to the larger battery that grip houses.

Hohem rates iSteady V3 Ultra’s payload up to 400 g with support for typical flagship phones; in our use, balance matters more than raw motor strength once you add accessories. I mostly shot with an iPhone 16 Pro Max with and without the case and it worked like a charm.

Setup is essentially drop-in. There is no lengthy balancing ritual. A hinge on the roll side gives a little extra clearance when you need steeper tilt. This makes taking the phone out for a quick call a no-brainer, since it will take you almost no time to get it back in afterwards. As someone who’s used to mostly mirrorless gimbals, this is a nice revelation and time-saver.

Orientation switches in-place via a button, so landscape to portrait takes a tap rather than remounting the clamp. Extremely useful and handy when switching between shooting scenarios for traditional and social content.

Multimodal AI tracker and detachable remote

One headline feature of the iSteady V3 Ultra is the AI tracking module that clips to the head. It combines a small camera and a three-temperature fill light, and it streams a live view to the detachable 1.22-inch touchscreen remote. From up to roughly 10 meters (which is impressive!) you can see what the tracker sees, select a subject with a double tap, start or stop tracking, flip orientation, and nudge framing with the remote’s joystick. Because tracking runs on the module, it works across apps: native camera, Blackmagic Camera, social apps, or live platforms.

This is one of the most freeing use cases for me as you’re not forced to use a proprietary app for shooting. The little touchscreen remote displays a tiny image which is relatively wide-angle and shows a similar field-of view than the standard camera on a smartphone. It’s really just a tiny, tiny preview though, so tapping on objects or subjects can be fiddly. I wish the little remote monitor would be a little larger, but honestly once you get your head around it, it really works well.

Gesture control and tracking performance

Gesture control is supported and works really well. A simple “OK” hand sign starts tracking, a palm stops it, and a framing gesture lets you recompose off-center. We appreciated being able to disable gestures in the menu when working around people who were accidentally triggering them. I found the “OK” gesture to be recognized easily almost every time, just the palm gesture sometimes didn’t immediately get recognized, but having your hand closer to your face seemed to help.

Hohem calls its tracking system “multimodal” because it can follow more than just faces. In practice it handled people reliably outdoors, coped with pets and simple objects, and was good enough for crafting or cooking demos where hands move around the frame. It’s also doing a good job tracking when you change the distance to the gimbal, for example when putting it on a table with the built-in tripod and have it follow you while you demonstrate something for the camera. It does however not reconnect after losing a face or object behind something else – that works with some AF-tracking modes on some camera systems, but not this gimbal tracking.

Stabilization and shooting modes

The V3 Ultra is a three-axis stabilizer with five core modes: Pan Follow, Pan-Tilt Follow, POV, Lock, and a faster follow profile for sportier movement. Infinite pan rotation removes the usual hard stop during wraps and orbits, and it helps tracking continue if you circle behind the gimbal.

Footage while walking is very clean for a compact foldable gimbal. Fast jogging or staircase sprints reveal the limits of short-arm geometry, especially on the tilt axis, but that is typical in this size class. The extension rod broadens move variety, from low-angle passes to overheads, without extra rigging, and I didn’t see that the extended rod would adversely affect stabilization performance.

Battery life and charging

Hohem quotes up to about 9 hours in light use. With the AI tracker active, and especially with the fill light on, I landed closer to 4–5 hours depending on movement and ambient temperature. Charging is via USB-C on the handle. The remote charges while docked, and both devices report their battery status on the touchscreen. There is no power output to top up your phone, so long days benefit from a power bank.

Fill light and how to deal with audio

The integrated fill light is adjustable in three color temperatures (so useful and necessary!) and tops out around 110 lux at very close range. It lifts faces in dim rooms or at dusk but will not replace a real key. Plus of course, I am not a big fan of on-camera lights in most cases anyway since they make your subject look “flat”, yet as a small fill light it can really help if you film someone or something moving in the shade.

As always with any camera or phone rigs, we recommend an external mic for critical audio. Depending on handset placement and gain, I’ve heard some people complain about a faint motor noise with internal mics, but I haven’t experienced that. A small on-phone digital receiver is the most elegant pairing here, as larger cold-shoe receivers can tip the balance. If you have something like the RØDE Wireless Micro, you can even use the transmitter without the receiver now after the latest firmware update, which is of course a great option to record audio in the phone without adding any extra bulk.

App, controls and quality-of-life

The touchscreen remote is the reason the V3 Ultra feels more “camera-like” than LED-code rivals. It exposes mode changes, follow speeds, motor strength, quick calibrations, light controls, panoramas, motion timelapse, and automated rotations without digging into a phone UI. Outdoors, the display remained readable, which reduced guesswork during run-and-gun.

I like the clear status bar: it shows AI lock state, Bluetooth link, and separate battery levels for gimbal and remote. The side button mirrors the trigger functions on the handle, including re-center and flip to selfie. Zoom buttons work inside Hohem’s app; third-party app support varies.

Without ever connecting the phone via Bluetooth to the gimbal or remote, I was able to use the start/stop trigger button on the remote every time. Feels like wizardry and works really well, no pairing needed.

Payload, lenses and mounting

Within the 400 g phone limit, the motors feel confident, which means they totally tolerate a slight imbalance if you are using a large phone like I do. The practical constraint is tilt balance when you add mass far forward of the clamp. Slim case plus phone is fine, and a light snap-on filter is usually OK. Large telephoto or anamorphic lens attachments, heavy cages, or bulky wireless receivers can push the system into “ping and quit” territory. There are no expansion ports on the arm itself, which keeps the package clean but limits mounting options. So I would definitely recommend using a standard phone setup on this gimbal, rather than a rig that feels pimped up like a proper mirrorless camera. (In that case: go for the mirrorless and a larger gimbal, obviously!)

Limitations

• Tilt clearance is modest for extreme low-angle moves unless you extend the hinge.
• Heavy front-weighted lens add-ons can exceed balance tolerance even if total mass is under 400 g.
• Battery life drops meaningfully once the AI tracker and light are in regular use.
• No phone charging passthrough; plan power for long live streams.
• App-level record triggers vary by platform and OS; the remote is most seamless with Hohem’s app and will control basic functions elsewhere. But as mentioned above, I had great experience using the standard Camera app on iPhone.
• Grip could be a little longer if you have large hands.

How the Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra gimbal compares

The Insta360 Flow 2 Pro integrates deeply with iPhone features and has a slick app, but it lacks a detachable touchscreen remote with a live AI feed. DJI’s compact OM-series gimbals are polished and affordable; again, there is no dockable screen that lets you manage tracking while standing away from the rig. Hohem’s own iSteady M7 offers more headroom and similar remote/AI benefits in a larger chassis. The Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra seems the best choice to me if portability and the remote-driven workflow are the priority – it’s simply lovely having this little remote and I will miss it once I go back to other gimbals.

Who it is for

Solo creators, educators, fitness instructors, real estate shooters, parents documenting family life, and anyone who needs reliable self-tracking without being tethered to an app. If you run heavy phone lenses, cages, or big wireless kits, step up to a larger phone gimbal or a camera-based system.

Conclusion

The Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra gets the fundamentals right and then adds a detachable touchscreen remote that meaningfully improves solo operation. Stabilization is strong for the size, infinite pan expands creative moves, and app-agnostic tracking fits real workflows. Respect its balance limits and plan for realistic battery life, and it becomes a very capable everyday tool. While this is not the kind of product most CineD readers would normally consider for professional shoots, it is a sign of where phone-based content creation is heading. As smartphones continue to gain advanced video features, tools like the iSteady V3 Ultra show how far support gear has come to make them viable for more than casual use.

Pricing and availability

The Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra is available now in black or white (with identical features) for $169/€189 from the Hohem Official Store (global shipping) and Amazon US, as well as B&H, and €189 in Europe from Amazon.

Would you integrate a gimbal like this alongside your main kit? Let us know in the comments.