DJI Osmo Mobile 4 Review: Why Did They Make Another?

The new DJI Osmo Mobile 4 is the 4th iteration of DJI’s mobile gimbals. With its compact size and easy to use creative features, these gimbals were very popular for travellers. The one constant hassle with gimbals was always the mounting of your phone or camera, but in the OM4, DJI innovated a simple magnetic mount system that was elegant and effective, which begs the question: why did it take 4 versions to come up with “magnets”?

The OM4 gives you 2 options to mount your phone onto the gimbal, the first being a phone clamp with a magnetic mount to connect to the gimbal. This clamp was slim and functional, it suits most phones and can easily be taken off or even kept on your phone and placed back in your pocket.

The other more permanent option was a magnetic keyring which would be stuck onto your phone with 3M tape. While this might seem like a more elegant solution, there are many drawbacks. First, with a permanent fixture on your phone, you can no longer use phone covers. Secondly, this keyring attached to your phone may not be compatible with wireless chargers or the new Apple Magsafe chargers.

With the release of the OM4, DJI also rolled out some interesting but questionable creative video features, mainly the Dynamic Zoom mode which mimics a Dolly Zoom movement used in cinema to create a dramatic effect. While this works and is somewhat interesting, there are some issues with this mode.

The resolution is drastically affected as the camera is digitally zooming into your subject while you move away, creating the Dolly Zoom effect. Also, there is no indication of when the phone starts to zoom in or zoom out, you can only tell after you’ve taken a few steps backwards and notice the Dolly Zoom effect occurring. This makes it very inaccurate and out of control.

With that being said, there have been tremendous improvements to the tracking mode as well as the gesture mode. These would most likely be the modes used for an average user.

In summary, the gimbal’s only advantage is its magnetic mount, which doesn’t justify an upgrade if you already had previous versions of the Mobile Gimbal. The jump from the OM3 to OM4 isn’t huge and was a bit of a disappointment. However, if this is your first gimbal from DJI, this would be a perfect start and a great way to begin making videos on your phone.

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Written by Shawn Koh (Tech360.tv Community Creator)