The day has finally come. After our sneak peek at a prototype back in January, DJI’s first hand-held gimbal is finally arriving in its slick true form along with a new name: Osmo. This $649 device is designed to house the Zenmuse 4K range of detachable three-axis stabilized cameras, with the default one being the Zenmuse X3 which packs a 1/2.3-inch Sony Exmor R CMOS with an effective resolution of 12.4 megapixels. Together with the single-hand grip and the metallic phone clamp, the whole package is essentially a wingless Inspire 1 and its controller combined as one. Should you decide to jump on the Micro Four Thirds bandwagon, you can also pop on a Zenmuse X5 at an extra cost. Slideshow-327611 Slideshow-327609
We’ve yet to give our Osmo some proper hands-on time, but so far, we’ve been very pleased with its ergonomic design, and the relatively light weight of 201 grams (battery included) is a nice bonus. It certainly feels significantly better than most other competitors in the current market, though it’ll be interesting to compare this with the Aetho Aeon when it hits the market. On a similar note, the metallic phone clamp feels sturdy and should be able to handle screen sizes of up to around six inches. We also dig the included carrying case, partly because it can trick people into thinking you’re carrying a ukulele.
As with other DJI devices, the setup process is quite straightforward: Just install the DJI Go app, and then launch it after connecting your phone to your Osmo’s WiFi hotspot. That said, the app doesn’t appear to be fully optimized for the Osmo just yet, as we still see a lot of irrelevant features that only apply to drones, plus we’ve been seeing a lot of hiccup while attempting to stream video files from our Osmo. We shall let DJI smooth out these kinks while we dig deeper for our upcoming review. Alternatively, if you have $649 handy, you can simply head over to DJI’s online store and pre-order this cool-looking gimbal.