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two minute review
The Insta 360 Flow is a solid four in one for your smartphone. That’s a selfie stick, tiny tripod, mini power bank, and a basic gimbal — and that’s before you pair your phone with Insta360’s app.
Once you do, you can enable smart tracking features that turn your Android or iOS device into a camera persona, as well as a great panorama-taking, montage-making gadget.
The control system takes some getting used to, and the Flow’s range isn’t best-in-class, and even larger phones with bulky cases can be a challenge thanks to its slimline phone grip.
Insta360 Flow Specs:
weight: 369 g
folded shape: 79.6×162.1x36mm
Unfolded Size: 73.6×269.4×69.9 mm
compatible phone thickness:6.9-10mm
compatible phone width:64-84mm
connectivity: USB-C, Bluetooth 5.0
selfie stick length: 215 mm
battery capacity: 2900 mAh
quoted run time: 12 hours
Provided it can handle your smartphone case and you’re comfortable with its limitations, the Insta360 Flow combines powerful features for casual and enthusiast smartphone videographers alike.
Between performing well in the basics and adding thoughtful touches to the mix like a built-in cold shoe and extendable tripod legs, matched with its relatively compact size, the Insta360 Flow is a powerful offering if you’re in the market for an affordable all-around -The all-in-one smartphone camera companion.
Price and Availability
- Launched in March 2023
- $159 / £145 / AU$239 list price for the standalone kit
- There are three different kits available in all
Available in three packages, the Insta360 Flow can be had as a Standalone Kit, Creator Kit and Pro Tripod Kit.
If you buy it standalone, you’ll get the Flow, a USB-C cable, a smartphone clamp, and a grip for the Flow’s trunk, as well as a bag to put it in. This will set you up. back by $159 / £145 / AU$239 – and for most, this kit will be absolutely sufficient.
If you’re looking to upgrade your carrying case to transparent plastic, carrying lanyards, and more importantly, get a USB-C powered fill light, the Creators Kit is for you, which costs $209 / £199 / AU$319.
The final package is the Pro Tripod Kit. While the Insta360 has an extendable tripod that folds out from the base, it also has a standard tripod thread mount. The Pro Tripod Kit comes with a wider, more solid tripod than the Flow’s extending legs, which screw into the bottom of the grip, and costs $192.98 / £179.98 / AU$283.
design
- weight 369g
- compact when folded
- Compatible with large and small phones
The Insta360 Flow is a very compact gimbal system considering how multifunctional it is.
While it’s not quite as light as the featherweight 309g DJI OM 6, at 369g, the Flow is still manageable.
The system trunk rotates when folded—doesn’t lock into place—but it’s a relatively solid, sturdy closed system that you can stuff in a bag without worrying that something might bend and break.
Open the Flow up completely, and what sets it apart from its main competition are the extended tripod legs, which help justify the extra weight nicely.
The Flow’s trunk has a round control panel with a joystick in the center, a trigger on the other side, and a USB-C port so you can power the gimbal.
The arm has some fun looking, exposed circuit boards, a bit of branding and a transparent plastic cover for the all-important cold-shoe mount.
At the top of the arm, there’s also a USB-C port for charging your phone, or powering the fill light in the Creator Kit, as well as a magnetic mounting point.
If you haven’t used a mobile gimbal before, the Insta360 Flow can feel a little flimsy the first time you open it, but it’s easy to get to grips with, and once you’re confident in its folding mechanism, the best The setup feels at least as strong and natural as the competition.
The metal clamp that rests on your smartphone is also touchable. We used it inside a mouse case on a variety of phones, from the super-wide Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra to the compact Asus Zenfone 9, and its spring-loaded mechanism handled both extremes like a champ. What a challenge big phone cases can be.
The saving grace of the Insta360 Flow is the soft rubberized grip cover that sheathes the trunk of the gimbal and its extended base. Without these, the Flow is awkward to hold, considering how thin and small it is. Add grip and expand the base, though, and even large hands should be able to steer the Flow without awkward grips.
features
- Smartphone stabilizer with active tracking via app
- 2900mAh battery with power bank functionality
- mobile tripod and selfie stick
The first feature worth talking about is the main function of the Insta360 Flow – being a gimbal.
Like the DJI OM6, it has three-axis stabilization, and while it covers different angles of pan, roll and tilt, the range is virtually the same across both gimbals – 330º panning and rolling, and 180º tilting.
For anyone taking the Flow primarily as a gimbal, therefore, it matches up well with direct competition from DJI, but stabilizing its strongest feature isn’t a more limited range than more single-function options. Is. Where the Flow excels, however, is in its multitasking.
While the DJI OM 6 has a modest 1000mAh battery, the Insta360 Flow has a higher-capacity 2900mAh.
This isn’t just a boon for long shoots, it’s also meant as a power bank, the Flow can seriously boost battery life, especially when matched against a smaller phone like the iPhone 14 or SE.
The Insta360 Flow’s selfie stick extends 187.6mm from the arm flow, which isn’t as far as some of the competition, including the OM 6. Still, it adds some useful utility to the experience that goes beyond just selfies.
In addition to its battery, the Flow’s outstretched legs are a major point of differentiation and serve two-fold functions. The first is covered—they add extra length to the Flow’s trunk, making it easier to grip. The second function of the legs is much more obvious – they become a tripod – perfect when shooting on a surface with the tracking feature in the Insta360 app, or using your phone as a webcam.
While the feet aren’t overly sturdy, especially when the Flow’s arm is fully extended, they can still keep the phone steady for steady footage and long-exposure photography, provided your surface isn’t too wobbly.
Through the Insta360 app, Flow flexes more than just the hardware, unleashing excellent subject tracking, as well as manual photography, multi-shot panoramas, timelapse, timeshift (hyperlapse), and our favorite feature, Live Mode. This lets you use the gimbal’s smart tracking in other apps, whether you’re on a WhatsApp call, in a Zoom meeting, or just filming on the native Camera app. When paired with a phone like the Xperia 1 V, with its powerful manual camera apps, it’s a great counterpart to get even more out of your kit.
As a result, even though some of the Insta360 Flow’s features aren’t class-leading, as a package, its full feature-set is exceptional.
Display
- Three-axis stabilization isn’t best-in-class
- Multi-function features beat the competition
- Third-party topic tracking through the Insta360 app
We had a great time testing the Insta360 Flow Out. Before you even fire up the app, all of its hardware features are powerful standalone, especially once you realize that the extended legs make it very easy to hold with one hand.
The weirdest thing about the gimbal is definitely the mode changing. The round control panel houses a bunch of inputs—buttons, a jog dial for zoom, and a touch-sensitive ring, as well as a joystick. It’s the touch-sensitive ring that we struggled with.
The Touch Ring switches between Follow, Pan Follow and First Person View as well as Auto mode, so we didn’t have to interact with it too much – but it’s definitely a weak point of the control system.
The jog dial for controlling zoom feels like the Insta360’s direct response to DJI’s rotating toggle on the OM 6, and it’s not quite as refined but works nonetheless. Insta360 has a handy list of compatible phones on-site, and most of the phones we matched were able to directly access multi-camera system zoom using Flow’s controls, which is impressive.
We also found the familiar triggers, joystick, and buttons to be easy to grip with — super intuitive for experienced gimbal users, and not too bothersome for novices, we asked to give it a whirl.
How well video is captured when using the Insta360 Flow will largely depend on your phone, but there’s no doubt that the gimbal system does a good job of boosting stabilization as well as adding useful features to the mix Is.
We weren’t generally fans of capturing content using the Insta360 app. It’s clumsy compared to the native apps, which is a bit surprising, considering it’s not purpose-built to pair with every camera system. What we did love, however, was the fact the Insta360’s Live mode, which works on iOS and Android, extends some of the gimbal’s core functionality – tracking – beyond Flow’s app, combining it with the improved native camera app . It’s a shame that in our testing, it was locked down for portrait orientation.
If you’re wondering which setup to get, we suggest going for the Basic bundle for most people. The Creator Kit fill light is handy, but it’s not essential, and the gimbal’s legs make the tripod kit a bit redundant. Most would be better off picking up a specific tripod or mini pod that suits their needs rather than going with that bundled in the kit.
Regardless of which kit you go for, though, we can certainly recommend the Insta360’s smart, powerful mobile gimbal, even if its controls are a bit fiddly and its stabilization isn’t best-in-class.
The DJI Osmo Mobile 6 is the Insta360 Flow’s main competition, but the OM 4 and 5 are also for anyone who doesn’t mind last-gen tech. In fact, while the OM4 is a much larger package, it offers a better range and power bank functionality, making it a smart choice for anyone who doesn’t mind a little extra weight.
also consider
test scorecard
| worth | Slightly higher price than rivals but more features | 4/5 |
| design | Looks great with arm and tripod legs – smart! | 4/5 |
| features | multi function to the max | 4.5/5 |
| Display | Excellent tracking and capable stabilization | 4/5 |
