DJI has announced the new Osmo Mobile SE gimbal for smartphones. It’s essentially an Osmo Mobile 6 with a smaller form factor, longer battery life and a better price tag. The Osmo Mobile SE has the same load capacity as the Osmo Mobile 6, and it’s compatible with all of the same accessories, including the magnetic phone clamp, which is supplied with it. In fact, it’s so close to the Osmo Mobile 6 that I’m not entirely sure why DJI is releasing this.
It has the newest Active Track tech for following subjects, with Bluetooth 5.1 to maintain communication between the gimbal and your smartphone. It offers all of the usual shooting features through the app, including timelapse, panoramics and hyperlapse. It accepts smartphones up to 3.3″ wide, which covers pretty much all of them – perhaps with the exception of folding phones – weighing up to 10.2oz, or around 290g.
The two gimbals actually seem to be very similar when it comes to their on-paper specifications. Both gimbals are designed for smartphones, have the same load capacity and physical capability to hold the same devices. Both also have very similar mechanical ranges, allowing for approximately the same amount of pan, tilt and roll. Both feature a standard 1/4-20″ threaded socket on the bottom for screwing into a mini tripod and both charge up over USB-C.
That’s where things start to get a little different, though. The DJI Osmo Mobile SE, despite being smaller than the Osmo Mobile 6, actually has a higher capacity battery. The battery in the Osmo Mobile 6 offers a total capacity of 7.74Wh, which provides up to about 6.4 hours of battery life in optimum conditions with a well-balanced smartphone. The Osmo Mobile SE, on the other hand, features a 9.36Wh battery which DJI says will provide a full 8 hours of battery life (with the same caveats about well-balanced, etc.), although it does take a little longer to charge up. The OM6 can be charged in an hour and a half. The OMSE takes around two and a quarter hours.
It’s an odd move for DJI to make, really. The DJI Osmo Mobile 6 was only announced in September 2022, less than five months ago. This isn’t a replacement model for the Osmo Mobile 6, but I’m not seeing what the attraction might be to the Osmo Mobile 6 anymore with the announcement of the Osmo Mobile SE. Naturally, it will cannibalise sales of the Osmo Mobile 6 because it competes with it directly and nobody’s really going to go out and buy both.
With this new gimbal being $50 cheaper than the Osmo Mobile 6 and having longer battery life, I don’t see what the draw is to the Osmo Mobile 6 anymore.
The DJI Osmo Mobile SE is available to buy now for $109 and is already shipping.
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