Hohem iSteady M7 Review: Big, Bulky, But Brilliant
A cursory search and scroll on YouTube for the Hohem iSteady M7 will position the new smartphone gimbal as an emerging titan in the gimbal space. All kinds of content creators have gone to great lengths to detail the seemingly endless list of features built into the M7, including its patented AI tracking technology that works with any smartphone.
The question, for me at least, is how well does the M7 fit into the videography toolbox of the average, everyday person? Can this new option from Hohem be a match even if your videos don’t go out to audiences of thousands? To find out, we put the M7 through a rigorous test of, well, regular activities to see how it performed. Here is what we found.
Hohem iSteady M7 Review: Design and Build Quality
There is a lot to love about the build of the iSteady M7. At the heart of the ensemble is an orthogonal three-axis design with a full 360 degrees of pan rotation as well as 325 degrees wide tilt range. All three of the gimbal’s motors have axis locks to keep it from jostling around during transportation or when it’s being stored. The iSteady M7 also has a built-in, 193mm extension pole (to functionally serve as its own selfie stick) while sporting a 500 gram payload and three expansion ports for optional accessories like phone lenses, microphones, fill lights and more.
Funny enough, we’re just scratching the surface on the design front. The iSteady M7 also has what Hohem coins its AI Tracker, a detachable camera for the gimbal that sits on top of the phone clamp to integrate AI tracking capabilities into your footage as needed. Then, there’s the piece de resistance, the iSteady M7’s 1.4-inch, full-color touchscreen controller that can fully detach from the gimbal and display the footage the aforementioned camera is seeing in real-time. Additionally, the iSteady M7 has a side roller that can be set to adjust different settings — specifically the motor rotation, focus adjustment, or the AI Tracker’s built-in fill light — as well as a trigger that can be used to recenter the gimbal or enable a wide-angle shooting mode where the gimbal’s main motor is moved to the rear of the shot.
If this sounds like an awful lot to jam pack into one very capable gimbal, that’s because it most certainly is. Unfortunately, the iSteady M7 takes a portability hit because of it. The gimbal is downright hefty, to the point where it becomes something of a problem to take with you on the go. It’s not something you can stash away in a pocket or hip pack while on a run (trust me, I’ve tried), and it takes up a significant amount of space in a backpack if you’re heading out for a hike or taking the M7 out for a remote shoot.
Similar to its design specs, the iSteady M7 has no shortage of qualities to mention when it comes to features. The gimbal itself claims to have a 12-hour battery life, which is about right based on my personal testing, and can actually reverse charge your smartphone as needed. The aforementioned RGB and CCT fill light built into the gimbal’s AI tracker features 360 lighting colors as well as warm, neutral and cool light ranging from 2,700K to 6,500K. The M7 also features Hohem’s iSteady 9.0 Stabilization technology, which the company says “delivers unmatched anti-shake performance.” More on that in a moment.
AI tracking is the most intriguing feature in the mix, of course, and Hohem certainly makes sure it’s as prominent as possible. You can double tap or drag-select the tracking target on the touchscreen to enable the gimbal to track pretty much anything, from a person to pets, buildings, cars, you name it. You can also use the trigger to pause and resume AI tracking with relative ease, and you can utilize this tracking feature from the comfort of your phone’s own, native camera app.
As if you didn’t already have enough control options, you can activate and adjust the gimbal’s AI tracking feature with gesture commands. Showing the “OK” sign to the camera will enable tracking, while making the “stop” gesture (like a crossing guard) will pause the gimbal’s tracking. You can also reframe yourself by making a frame with your hands (think how kids differentiate between their lefts and rights), moving yourself to where you want to be in the frame, then using the frame gesture once more.
Finally, you can tap into various gimbal modes and settings via both the iSteady M7’s touchscreen and the Hohem Joy App. I downloaded the app but used it quite sparingly, instead accessing things like the gimbal’s pan-follow, pan-tilt-follow, and POV modes or adjusting aspects like joystick speed or motor speeds through the integrated touchscreen. It was fairly easy to navigate around and access what I needed on a regular basis, though I will caution that folks with larger, stubbier fingers (guilty) may find themselves victim to a misplaced tap every now and again.
Hohem iSteady M7 Review: Performance
Admittedly, as someone who hasn’t often incorporated a gimbal into their gear, the iSteady M7 can be a bit intimidating at first blush. As we’ve mentioned, there’s all kinds of controls, settings and literal moving parts, and if you don’t do your homework, you could be in for a frustrating experience. I brought it along for a hike the first day it arrived, and didn’t record a single second of footage after failing to get the gimbal to comply in any meaningful way.
After I took the time to get acclimated with the iSteady M7, thanks in part to Hohem’s helpful tutorials built right into its app, the story changed drastically. For context, I’m in a somewhat unique situation that also weirdly makes me a perfect guinea pig for smartphone gimbals. I have mild cerebral palsy that impacts the right side of my body, which makes for an uneven gait when I’m walking, running, hiking, etc. Essentially, there’s nothing stable about how I move, and a lot of the footage I record on a regular basis tends to reflect that.
I went jogging with the M7 a handful of times (again, size is a factor when trying to bring this thing on the go) and was absolutely impressed with the gimbal’s stabilization technology. You can still see me bobbing and weaving, but the camera itself is undoubtedly steady. I’m nowhere near what one might describe as a content creator, but I do like posting stuff like hiking, biking and running clips to my tiny channels online. The M7 changes the game for me for grabbing short clips with my smartphone, instead of defaulting to an action camera like I’ve historically done 95 percent of the time.
I also shot a “get ready with me” style video before a mountain bike ride, where the M7 was stationary and using its AI tracking functionality as I moved around my garage to gear up and get ready. It followed me everywhere, only pausing after I had disappeared from the frame for too long by going inside the house for a moment. When I returned, a quick “OK” gesture brought the AI tracking back online, and the iSteady returned to seamlessly following me around my space. I’ve never been a huge “vlog” guy, but the M7 makes such a compelling case for quality solo footage that there may be an influx of it in my future.
The Hohem iSteady M7 Is Not Perfect, but It Is Very Good
There are some minor faux pas: for instance, to change the gimbal’s orientation from landscape to portrait, you have to power down the M7 and manually switch the phone mount’s position, a process that isn’t hard, just cumbersome. And while you can start recording with the press of a button on the touchscreen controller, there’s nothing on the screen itself that confirms you are, indeed recording. I had to swivel the gimbal more than once to confirm that I was actually recording and not just staring into the void. Beyond these small annoyances though, the iSteady M7 is downright exceptional at what it sets out to accomplish.
Are There Alternatives?
There’s not necessarily a huge market for a relative niche like smartphone gimbals, but there are definitely some standouts. The DJI Osmo Mobile 6 packs some similar features to the iSteady M7 while offering a significantly smaller footprint, and Hohem’s own iSteady V3 represents a far more portable, if slightly less feature-packed solution to its hulking sibling. And in the process of writing this review, Insta360 decided to drop the latest iteration of its own AI-powered smartphone gimbal, the Insta360 Flow 2 Pro. There is also, of course, the all-in-one solution that is the DJI Osmo Pocket 3.
Without having any of these competing products on hand to test them side-by-side, it’s hard to say for sure where the iSteady M7 stacks up. That said, I can say with confidence that you will be hard pressed to find another smartphone gimbal with the sheer amount of features that are baked into the M7.
Should You Buy It?
Yes. If your main tool for shooting footage and taking photos is your smartphone, the Hohem iSteady M7 is a surefire way to vastly improve that experience. Among countless other features and capabilities, it prioritizes the ability to stabilize your shot and intuitively keep you (or whatever you’re tracking) in frame. It comes at the sacrifice of portability thanks to its beefy stature, but it’s a price worth paying for an excellent accessory to your smartphone videography.
