Zhiyun Smooth 4 Vs Smooth Q Best Gimbal Stabilizer in 2024

Camera technology has advanced substantially over the last decade. No longer do you need a point and shoot camera or even a disposable camera to pick up for the next family vacation — you can take all of the photos and videos you want right on your smartphone. As you know, the cameras in our smartphones can take insane image quality — video quality might even be a little better with advents like 4K resolution available. Although the technologies provide quality that we’ve never seen before, they still are trying to make the quality even better in their mobile cameras. Unfortunately, there’s at least one area where manufacturers have trouble improving, and that’s in video stability.

Zhiyun Gimbal Stabilizer Alternative

MOZA Mini-S

Similar to the Zhiyun, we would highly recommend you consider the MOZA Mini-S for your gimbal.  With many exciting features like foldable design, vertigo, hyper-lapse modes, and multiple follow modes, MOZA Mini-S Smartphone Gimbal could make your filmmaking simpler and more convenient. Its sleek and compact design helps deliver a comfortable and solid grip. Inception Mode will make it possible for you to make more creative shots. There is also a customized MOZA App to lend a hand. And vitally, an affordable price tag coupled with a max payload of 260g will make MOZA Mini-S very competitive and attractive indeed. It’s also free shipping fee worldwide.

Buy it now: Gudsen Store

Manufacturers aren’t able to control the precision of people’s hands. That said, video is always going to be somewhat shaky — people aren’t capable of recording their video with cinema-level quality without extra tools. That’s why you use additional hardware, such as a video stabilizing gimbal.

Gimbals can give you that cinema-like smoothness in your video recording. But, with so many gimbals out there, which one do you choose? Today, we’re comparing the Zhiyun Smooth 4 and the Smooth Q gimbals against each other to show you which one is the better option. Follow along below and find out!

Zhiyun Smooth 4

The Zhiyun Smooth 4 is one of the nicer video stabilizing gimbals. It’s a more affordable version of DJI’s Osmo 2. The neat thing about this video stabilizing gimbal is just how versatile it is — the phone clasp can be adjusted to almost any smartphone on the market. You can use it with phone’s as large as the Galaxy Note 8 or the iPhone XR.

This video stabilizing gimbal does operate off of Bluetooth, so you do need to connect it to your smartphone for gimbal operation to begin. Once connected to Bluetooth, the gimbal will smooth out your video, giving you essentially cinema-like quality in smoothness. Now, since the Smooth 4 does operate off of Bluetooth, it does have it’s own battery. It’s a long-lasting battery, but you should always make sure it’s charged up before a day of video recording.

The Zhiyun Smooth 4 has a bunch of shortcuts that are sitting right on the handle — this makes it easier to use your camera’s various features and functions. You can use functions like start and stop video recording, object tracking, time-lapse, slow motion, shutter, and more all right from the handle.

Keep in mind that you do have to balance the gimbal before you start recording. Zhiyun does include video tutorials on how to do this, but you move the smartphone as close as possible to the tilt motor.

Overall, the Zhiyun Smooth 4 is one of the best video stabilizing gimbals that you can get right now.

Buy it now: Amazon

Smooth Q

Zhiyun also offers the Smooth Q as another video stabilizing gimbal, one that’s a little more affordable than the Smooth 4. Like Smooth 4, it does have an adjustable phone clasp that will work with almost any smartphone. It can use a GoPro Adapter, but that’s not included with this gimbal.

With three electronic brushless motors in the Smooth Q, the video will stay smooth and quiet throughout your recording. It does operate over Bluetooth, so the Smooth Q is another gimbal where you’ll have to keep an eye on the battery life of it. You should be able to get 12 hours of life out of it before needing to charge it back up.

As far as the shortcuts go, there aren’t a whole lot of options right on the handle. There are options for a start and stop recording, shutter, and zooming in and out on the handle. beyond that, things like panorama, time-lapse, and other functions have to be used from the app.

The downside to this gimbal is that it’s made out of fewer quality materials. It has trouble with heavier smartphones, and it’s not super intuitive to use. However, if you’re not on a budget, it’ll get you by just fine. Although, if you do have some extra money to spend, Smooth 4 is a much better purchase.

Buy it now: Amazon

Verdict

As you can see, Zhiyun offers two video stabilizing gimbals — both of these will bring cinema-level smoothness to your video recording, but the Smooth 4 is the better quality of the two gimbals. Do you have a favorite video stabilizing gimbal? Let us know what it is and why in the comments section below!