I tested the Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra, the touchscreen remote really is as good as it seems

Hohem has really been at the forefront of AI single-handed mobile gimbal stabilisers with the small add-on AI modular attachment. This enables you to utilise hand gestures to activate AI commands that do everything from starting and stopping recording to tracking your movements, so you can essentially feel like you have your own personal film crew with you, even when you’re recording on your own.

They have worked hard to boost the abilities of the AI tracking, and through the companion app, you are now able to select the type of tracking that the gimbal is able to support, so it’s no longer limited to just people but will also track pets, vehicles, and many other types of objects.

Another major enhancement is that it has 360° infinite pan alongside the three-axis stabilisation. While most gimbals will offer three-axis stabilisation, the pan now rotates a full 360°, which does give you far greater flexibility when filming.

Alongside the standard mobile gimbal stabiliser features and functions, the V3 Ultra also packs in a series of more advanced options, including the ability to shoot high-resolution panoramic photos, a standard photo mode, video mode, time lapse, time warp, and a moment mode that enables you to add in and interact with special effects.

And of course, through the app, you can also add a series of effects, so if you want your picture to look like a sketch, add some blur, convert to monochrome, or apply a whole series of colour effects, then this can all be done with a quick touch of a button.

So, the V3 Ultra builds on the success of the V3, but with that touchscreen remote, improved stabilisation, more robust and premium feel of design and aesthetics, and increased features within the Hohem Play app.

Once again, Hohem hasy built on the success of their previous model, the iSteady V3, that I looked at in August last year, and they’ve pretty much enhanced almost every area of the design, most notably the increase in build quality and material finish, which now gives the V3 a more premium feel than it ever did before.

The tough composite body just feels good and solid, and once again, it has the aluminium extension that enables a decent length of selfie stick.

As before, it has a nice folding mechanism that makes it very easy to pack down and store neatly in a side pocket of a backpack or bag. When folded out, the small tripod that comes out of the base and extension tube feels solid, with plenty of flexibility over how it can be used. One of the things that I really like is just how solid and robust the build and all the joints feel for this particular gimbal.

While there are other single-handed gimbal stabilisers out there that offer many of the features, build quality, and design of the Hohem V3 Ultra, the one thing that really makes this small single-handed gimbal stabiliser stand out is the small, removable touchscreen remote. This simply clicks into the front panel of the gimbal, but then can be easily removed and used in isolation away from the gimbal itself.

This means that you still have full and complete control using the small joystick and record button along side the touchscreen that enables you to quickly flick through all of the options, including orientation, zooming, and most impressively, an AI live transmission video feed directly back to the remote so that you can see exactly what you’re recording, meaning that you can use the high quality cameras on the back of the phone to record, but will be still be able to see the composition.

When it comes to features, alongside all of the usual things that we’ve come to expect from mobile gimbal stabalisers, including the extension pole, built-in tripod and complementary app, the Hohem V3 Ultra builds on what came before with the V3, since that original iteration of the iSteady V3.

The new Ultra features the detachable touchscreen remote, real-time AI live feed monitoring, a modular AI tracker, 360° infinite pan tracking, universal object tracking so that you’re not just tracking people, three-colour fill light, 205 mm built-in extension pole, AI touchscreen interaction, enhanced stabilisation to iSteady 9.0 performance, and improved battery life, which will see up to 9 hours of use.

One of the most impressive features of the Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra is the advanced multimodal AI tracker that has become something of a benchmark by which I test all other AI trackers. It works incredibly well for a huge range of interactive modes, such as image, video, gesture, and touch control, so that you can easily get the most out of the gimbal without having to connect to your mobile phone app or anything else.

The module essentially sits on the phone holder just underneath, locks in place, and has its own AI camera that looks out on the scene before it and can also recognise hand gestures. What is so impressive is that you don’t actually need to have the Hohem Play app downloaded to use it; you can just use hand gestures to start and stop tracking, which is incredibly impressive.

Alongside the AI module, is the small, removable touchscreen remote. This gives you full touchscreen control over the small gimbal and works up to 10 m away and, most impressively, gives you a live view stream directly through to the remote, so if you’re filming yourself, you can actually check your composition using the high-quality cameras on your mobile device rather than just the lower-quality front-facing camera. This is a huge innovation and really does make this unit stand out.

Built into the AI module is an LED fill light and there is some control over the colour so that you can have cool, warm or neutral tones, giving far more flexibility than a lot of the competition.

Another feature that I didn’t think would be such a big deal is the 360° infinite pan tracking. This essentially means that you can walk around the gimbal, and it will track you for 360°. While this seems quite obvious, most gimbals rotation is limited.

Hohem has also worked on the Hohem Play app, and through that, you now have the option to seamlessly stream to multiple social media platforms, including YouTube, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, and even Teams.

Alongside all these other enhancements comes iSteady 9.0, which is the core of the English stabilisation. While the smoothness of footage from the V3 was superb, on the iSteady V3 Ultra, it takes a leap up with a new anti-shake stabilisation system.

Out of the box, the Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra is one of the most compact single-handed mobile gimbal stabilisers on the market, especially when you consider the volume of features and advanced control that it has to offer.

The first thing that strikes you is the weight. It is very compact, but it is slightly larger and heavier than the old V3, however, it also feels far more solid, and my review sample arrived in matt white with orange detailing that looked very stylish and far removed from the relatively lightweight models that we saw just a couple of years ago.

Getting started with the iSteady V3 Ultra is incredibly easy, and even if you don’t load the Hohem Play App, you can still utilise many of the advanced features. Before getting to those, the first thing you need to do is set up your camera. As with any other single-handed mobile gimbal stabiliser, there’s a small tripod that pulls out of the base.

Once the small tripod base has been extended, you can set the V3 Ultra down, flip over the main axis and clamp, then load your mobile phone. It’s all very nice and easily balanced, with just enough room on the clamp to clear any of the buttons on the side of your mobile phone. In this test, I used an iPhone 15 Pro.

Once your phone is loaded on and the AI module is positioned below, it’s then time to power on with a small power switch just on the side of the handle housing. Hold down for a few seconds, and the red light of the AI module quickly flashes on along with the LED light, and the small touchscreen LED suddenly flashes to life and, you’re set to go.

Before even downloading the app, you can get started straight away by opening up your own camera app, selecting video or cinematic, and hitting record in the normal way. The stabiliser then works as you would expect.

However, you have the AI module to add an element of depth, so just by holding up the ‘okay’ sign with one of your hands, you activate the AI tracking. If you’re in video mode and using the front-facing camera, the phone will now just track along with you, so if you’re presenting to the camera, then the phone on the gimbal will track around perfectly well, or if you’re walking along, you can talk to the camera, and you will always stay in shot. You won’t have to think about it. It’s really nice and easy.

However, if you want to get a little bit more advanced and you’re filming someone else, you can flick the AI module around and get that person to then do the ‘okay’ symbol, and the phone will then track them. You can now use the higher quality rear cameras of the phone whilst the gimbal still tracks every single movement of the person you’re filming, giving a far more professional look to your footage, and by doing this, you’ll also be able to use the cinematic mode on the camera and not just the standard video mode.

But then you can take this a step further because the small remote is removable and features AI live streaming. You can swipe left, and suddenly you have a preview of the composition that you’re shooting. It might not have the background blur as the video feed is coming from the AI module, not from the phone itself, but it’ll give you a good enough representation of what you’re filming to ensure that your composition is correct.

The other thing about the small remote is that it’s got the joystick and the record button, as well as being able to access all the functions and features of the gimbal remotely, which is far more than most other mobile gimbals on the market and gives you a real advantage if you’re trying to film content without the help of other people.

Obviously, one of the main features of the system is that it has full AI tracking with gesture control. If you want to start or stop recording, you just do the ‘okay’ symbol with your hand, and the light on the AI unit will turn green, and you’ll see the mobile phone start to track you around. If you want to stop it, just hold your hand flat to the camera, and it’ll stop tracking. If you then want to take a photo or start or stop recording, depending on which mode of the app you’re in, then you hold up one of your hands with your little finger and thumb extended and again you’ll see the status light on the AI module flash and it’ll take a picture or start or stop recording.

If you want to switch the orientation to portrait or landscape, you just put two thumbs up. If you want to customise the composition, then you create a frame symbol with your fingers, and it will recompose. Likewise, you can do a lot of these using the controls actually on the gimbal itself, so using the joystick, you can use that to recompose, and if there’s a subject that you want in frame, then you can just single-press the trigger on the back of the grip, and that’ll lock on target.

For the most part activating the features with the guesture controls is easy enough, but there are some that take a bit of practice to master. The main activate tracking, start and stop recording and recompose all seemed to work reliably.

When it comes to all the standard gimbal features, these have really been refined in use by Hohem, and during the test, I was really impressed with just how easy it was to flip between one mode and another. It all feels intuitive, making this one of the easiest to use gimbal stabilisers out there.

What really makes it stand out is that removable remote, especially considering it has that live stream view as well, and that seems to work well over quite a distance. Hohem states that it will work up to 10 m away, and through this test, it seems to work perfectly up to about eight or nine metres with a clear line of sight.

One of the other things about these features that I was worried about was the battery life, but through the test, I was able to charge it on the initial use, and this seemed to last for a full day without the need for a recharge. In the situation that it was used, that battery life would stay topped up for the entire day without a need for a charge until the evening, so any worries about it running down during a day’s shoot or whilst creating content for your social media shouldn’t be an issue.

Alongside the actual hardware, you do, of course, have the Hohem Play app, and once again this is fully featured with its own camera app that enables you a huge variety of options, most notably manual control. What I really like as well is that it seems to be really well integrated with the Apple ecosystem, so as you zoom in and out of the subjects, the lenses on the camera actually change to ensure the best possible quality.

Through the App there are plenty of effects and other options that you can play with. Most impressive of all is the “Moment” option, which enables you to use some quite dramatic cinematic effects, including rain and dolly zoom. Both need you to have a little bit of practice, but the end results are extremely impressive once you have mastered the movements.

Once again, Hohem have created a single-handed mobile gimbal stabiliser that integrates advanced AI to give one of the most comprehensive stabilisation experiences for your mobile phone on the market. They have really improved on the aesthetic and ergonomic design of the V3 Ultra and it feels like one of the most solid and premium models on the market.

When I first tested the Hohem iSteady V3, I was impressed by the build quality and stabilisation, which all seemed a good balance and at an excellent price. Now the iSteady V3 Ultra has arrived, and this is definitely a step up. Whilst I liked the old remote on the V3, the fact that it is now touchscreen with live view feed really does enhance its use.

Likewise, the fact that the extension pole is that much longer with a little bit more flexibility than the old version just adds to the premium feel of the device.

However, once again, what really stands out is that AI tracking. Whilst other larger gimbals are now including AI tracking modules as part of the core, there are few others at present that offer AI tracking as an integrated part of the base hardware. The fact that you can use it to such a degree without even needing to install any software is a huge advantage, so if you’re out and about and you want other people to utilise their mobile phones, there’s no need for them to download the app, they can just get started, although they will have to start and stop recording manually.

Then there’s the tri-colour LED fill light, which is surprisingly bright for its small size but also incredibly well diffused. Once again, through the app, there is limited control over its brightness, which is very handy.

Then there is the Hohem Play app, and what I really like about this is just how straightforward it is to use. Essentially, as soon as you load up the app, it starts to look at the gimbal, connects you straight into the camera without any adverts or hints or tips to take you onto a social media site, and you can just get straight into doing what you need to do.

The app also offers plenty of different features, be it live photo, video or effects, and using the standard video mode, there’s plenty of manual control if you want it. Alongside that, it also offers a huge variety of effects you can apply to the video to make it look unique. One of my favourite things about the app is just how well it integrates with the iPhone camera, and as you zoom in, the lenses of the phone switch over to ensure that you’re always using the best quality optics.

The only thing that I could say that might put people off this model over the standard V3 is the increase in price. At around £179, it is a decent step up, but then, considering what you’re getting for your money, especially when compared to the competition from DJI and Insta360, the value for money here is excellent. Then there’s the slight increase in size and weight, but when it comes to being used, those just help to enhance the premium feel of the stabiliser, and for the most part, you’ll only notice that if you’re packing this into a very tight space. When it comes to everyday use, that size and weight just give a little more balance and stability, which is always welcome.

Overall, the Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra is an excellent step up over the standard V3 and well worth considering if you’re after a solid, fully featured, and advanced mobile gimbal stabiliser. The addition of the touchscreen remote is a real game changer, and the enhancements to the build, stability, and features make it a compelling purchase.