The complete guide
How to Choose a Magnetic Phone Tripod and Selfie Stick
The problem with filming on your phone
Phone cameras got very good, very fast. The thing holding most people back now is not the sensor, it is the fact that a phone is a thin slab with nowhere to rest. You prop it against a mug. You ask a stranger to take the photo. You hold your arm out and the frame wobbles for the whole clip. Every one of those is a small compromise, and they add up across a trip or a weekend of filming.
A stand fixes it, but one stand rarely covers everything. A little tabletop tripod is great for a video call and hopeless for a group shot on a beach. A selfie stick is fine at arm's length and cannot stand on its own. A full-size camera tripod is steady and far too much to carry around a city all day.
This one is built to cover the common cases with one piece of gear. It collapses to a 33 centimeter minimum height, extends to a 69 inch maximum for eye-level and overhead shots, and the legs fold out when you need it to stand alone. Weight is 460 g, which is light enough that you stop thinking about whether to bring it.
How the magnetic mount works
The phone holder is magnetic. Bring a magnetic phone close and it attaches. No clip to open, no sliding jaws to adjust, no worrying about whether you have squeezed a button on the side of the phone.
If your phone or case is not magnetic, you have two options. The kit includes a metal ring to add to the phone or the case, which lets it attach to the magnetic holder. The second option is the included clamp, which grips phones from 4.7 to 7 inches and has a built-in metal ring of its own. The maker says the clamp needs no adhesive and can be removed and reused on different phones. Having both in the box means you are not stuck if you change phones.
Worth knowing: magnetic hold drops off quickly with distance. A thin case is fine. A thick rugged case with a shock layer puts too much air between the magnet and the plate, and the grip gets weak. If that describes your setup, use the clamp and ignore the magnet entirely.
The three modes
Selfie stick. Legs folded, rod short. You hold the handle and the camera sits ahead of your hand. This is the mode for walking shots, street vlogs and the quick photo where you want more than arm's length but do not want to set anything up.
Monopod. Legs folded, rod long. One point of contact with the ground, which steadies the shot without the footprint of a full tripod. Useful in a crowd, at a concert, or anywhere a tripod would be in people's way.
Tripod. Legs open, rod at whatever height you want. Now it stands on its own and you can walk away from it. This is the group photo mode, the interview mode and the time-lapse mode.
Switching between them takes seconds. Press the release at the base, slide the rod, fold or unfold the legs. There is no tool and nothing to unscrew.
The head, and why 360 degrees matters
On top is a ball head that rotates a full circle. The practical effect is that you can shoot upright video and sideways video from the same mount without taking the phone off. If you post short-form clips and also want a wide landscape, that saves a lot of fiddling.
Tilt matters as much as rotation. Point the phone down and you get a clean overhead of a desk, a plate of food or a craft project. Point it up and you get a low angle looking at a building or a person, which flatters almost any subject. Lock the head once you are happy and it holds the frame for the whole take.
The head also carries a cold shoe and a standard 1/4 inch screw. The cold shoe is an unpowered bracket for a small LED light or a compact microphone, which is the quickest way to make phone video look and sound a step better. The 1/4 inch screw is the universal tripod thread, so an action camera or a small compact camera goes straight on in place of the phone holder.
The remote is the quiet upgrade
People buy this for the height and end up using the remote the most. It detaches from the handle, pairs with the phone wirelessly and fires the shutter from a distance. That changes what you can shoot. You can be in the family photo instead of taking it. You can start a clip, walk into frame, do the thing, and stop it without running back.
It is rechargeable, with a charging cable in the box, which means no hunting for an odd battery size before a trip. Charge it when you charge everything else. There is a groove on the stick where it stores, and using that groove religiously is the difference between always having the remote and losing it in a drawer within a month.
The maker says it pairs instantly with your phone and works from up to 10m away. Open the camera app before you press the button.
Who it suits
If you take a lot of photos of other people but rarely appear in them yourself, this is the fix. If you film short clips for social, the upright lock and the height range cover almost everything you will shoot. Travelers like it because 460 g is nothing in a daypack. People who run video calls from a desk can use it with the rod down, as a stand on the desk.
It is less suited to heavy gear. This is a lightweight aluminum and plastic stand sized for phones and small cameras. A full mirrorless body with a long lens belongs on something heavier.
Getting the best out of it
Height and stability pull against each other. At the 69 inch maximum, with a phone on top, the center of gravity sits high, so give it a flat, firm base and spread the legs fully. Outdoors on a breezy day, drop the height. Indoors, full extension is usually no problem.
On grass or sand, press the feet down to seat them and keep the rod shorter than you think you need. Check the frame before you walk away, not after.
Keep the telescopic sections clean. Grit is what makes a sliding tube stiff, and once it gets in there it grinds. Wipe the exposed sections before you collapse them, especially after a beach or a dusty trail. The unit is not water resistant, so dry it off properly if it gets caught in rain, and extend the sections to air out before storing.
Care and storage
Wipe with a dry or lightly damp cloth. Skip solvents, since they can haze the plastic parts. Collapse the sections fully before packing and never force a lock that is resisting, as that is how the mechanism gets broken. Store the remote in its groove and give it a charge now and then if it is sitting unused.
Keep the magnetic holder and the metal ring clean, so they sit flat against each other.
The short version
One stand, three modes, from a 33 centimeter desk height up to 69 inches. Magnetic snap-on mounting with a metal ring and a clamp included for phones that are not magnetic. A 360 degree ball head for upright or sideways framing. A cold shoe and a 1/4 inch screw for a light, a microphone or an action camera. A rechargeable wireless remote so you can actually be in the shot. All of it at 460 g in aluminum and plastic, in black and red.
If you shoot on your phone more than a couple of times a week, this is the accessory that changes what you can make.