review

Adonit PhotoGrip Qi Wireless Charging Phone Camera Grip

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Something to grip your phone better with and make holding your phone a little bit more convenient makes a lot of sense especially, if you take a lot of pictures and do a lot videos with your phone. While a basic concept, phone grips are, probably, one of the most useful phone accessories you can invest in to help you film and take pictures better with your smartphone.
Phone grips come in many different applications including fairly inexpensive ones such as finger grips and more expensive phone grips such as electronic gimbal stabilizers.
There are also middle-of-the-road offerings such as the Adonit PhotoGrip Qi, which is a versatile, multipurpose handheld phone grip that can also charge a phone at the same time.
The back of the PhotoGrip Qi, where the phone rests, features four rounded foam pads that cushions the phone and prevent any scratches. The Adonit PhotoGrip Qi is compatible with both Android devices (Android v4.3 and above) and iOS devices (iOS 5.0 and above).
As long as your phone has a width between 58mm and 85mm and a thickness less than 10mm, it will fit perfectly inside the PhotoGrip Qi adjustable cradle. The total dimensions of PhotoGrip Q1 are 121 mm long, 82 mm tall and 44 mm thick.
The front of the PhotoGrip Qi features a flat surface made of PC and ABS plastic that raises up into a bump towards the right side. The raised bump has a grippy ergonomic shape made of silicone rubber that is designed to fit snugly the two middle fingers of your right hand, giving you the feel of holding a DSLR camera in your hand. Given its design, PhotoGrip Qi can only be operated with the right hand.
The PhotoGrip Qi shutter button is located right above the raised bump and provides a convenient location for the index finger to reach and trigger the camera shutter function of the phone.
The shutter button can also be easily removed from the body of the PhotoGrip Qi by simply sliding it outwards, letting you operate the shutter of your phone (within a 10 meter range) for those times when no one is around to take a picture for you.
When shooting a photo with the shutter button, you first have to open the camera app of your phone as pressing the PhotoGrip shutter button won't automatically load your phone camera app.
PhotoGrip Qi weighs 130 grams; hence if your phone weighs 200 grams the total weight will be 330 grams, making the entire thing heavier than the heaviest smartphone to date - the ROG Phone 2 -which weighs 240 grams. That said, the weight is still significantly less than the lightest DSLR you can buy - the Canon EOS 250D - which weighs 450 grams.
The body of the PhotoGrip Qi is flat but contains a spring-loaded moving section designed to adjust according to the width of the phone.
The body of the PhotoGrip Qi houses the rechargeable 3000mAh battery and wireless charging coil to charge Qi-enabled phones at 5 watts. Not all phones support wireless charging so, it's wise checking out whether your phone does. When the PhotoGrip Qi internal battery runs out, it is recharged via USB-C connection only. A USB-C able is included.
Something else worth pointing out about wireless charging is that it's significantly less efficient than charging via cable. This means, a substantial amount of battery power is lost during the wireless charging transfer between the phone and PhotoGrip Qi.
You can realistically expect PhotoGrip Qi's 3000mAh battery to deliver 60% of that power (approx. 1600mAh). A workaround to this loss of battery power issue could be delivering the power via a charging cable connected between PhotoGrip Qi and the phone.
But, even if you could connect a cable in between, it would not work and that is because PhotoGrip Qi's USB-C port is not designed to output power. It can only input power to fully charge the 3000mAh battery, which takes around 90 minutes via 5V/2A.

While the shutter button houses the bluetooth chip circuit that allows you to pair it with the phone. The bluetooth remote shutter pairs just like any other Bluetooth device via Bluetooth 4.2 and it's powered via a coin cell CR2016 removable battery.
There is a power-saving mode integrated in the shutter that turns it off automatically after being inactive (non-connected to a phone). As far as the remote shutter battery life, it depends on usage but, you can expect minimal power consumption because bluetooth 4.2 does support "bluetooth low energy".
The base of the PhotoGrip Qi contains a 1/4-inch thread to attach PhotoGrip Qi to a full size tripod or you can attach it to the included mini tripod, which provides a height of 2-inches with the legs extended. You can have the mini tripod stand taller (3 inches) by closing the legs and positioning it upright.
The mini tripod is able to stand without falling sideways but only on a flat surface, thanks to the rubber feet of the mini tripod which are flat so, you can position the tripod legs at slightly different heights.
Another neat thing about the mini tripod is its cylindrical shape, which provides a comfortable grip in the hand. The screw thread plate of the mini tripod is also rubberized.
The base and right side of the PhotoGrip Qi have an ergonomic flat design that allows PhotoGrip Qi to stand on its own on a flat surface either vertically or horizontally. You can essentially, use PhotoGrip Qi as a practical phone stand holder.
The top of PhotoGrip Qi contains a small flat button (wireless charging power button) with a status led designed to feedback when the wireless charging functionality has been turned on.
The led is also designed to change color according to the amount of battery life there is remaining (white=above 70%, yellow=below 70% and red= below 30%). A neoprene-like drawstring pouch is included along with a snazzy DSLR-like camera strap.

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