Beastgrip Pro Universal Smartphone Holder Review

Features
Handling
Performance
Verdict
Specification

The Beastgrip Pro is a universal mount for your smartphone. It's available on its own, with a wide-angle lens, or the one we reviewed comes complete with 2 lenses, wide-angle and fisheye, to change the field of view of your camera phone and there are a wide variety of options for attaching additional kit to the grip. It's available in the UK through Intro2020. Here, we take a look at how it performs.

Beastgrip Pro Features

The Beastgrip is fully adjustable, to accommodate almost any smartphone. It has a springloaded grip with rubber pads to hold your phone in place. If this is too loose or tight for your phone, both the top and bottom grips can be unscrewed and moved until you get a good fit.

On the left is a panel with a hole in that slides up and down. The hole should be placed over the phone's camera. On the other side of this panel you can screw the additional lenses. This panel can be adjusted up and down to line up perfectly with your phone's camera. There are 2 further screws on the front of the grip that let you adjust the overall width of it, again so it will fit your phone perfectly. 

There are 2 screw mounts on top of the beast grip so you can add things like an LED light. There is also a cold shoe mount ideal for a microphone. There is a screw mount on the bottom to attach the mount to a tripod. It's mainly designed for video production - smartphones these days are often capable of Full HD  and 4K video which can be used professionally. The grip can be attached to a rig, to enable much smoother movement than if the phone was hand-held. 

In the box, you get the adjustable frame, 2 lenses, both in a protective bag and with a cleaning cloth, an alan key for the screws, some spare screws and a lens wrench for undoing lenses that you screw onto the mount too tightly. There are also some spare screws. 

Key Features

• Fits almost any smartphone
• Fully adjustable
• Attaches to mount / tripod
• Has 2 screw mounts and a cold shoe for accessories
• 2 lenses, wide-angle and fisheye lens

Beastgrip Pro Handling

The Beastgrip is really easy to set up, once you get to grips with which screws adapt which element of the mount. Lenses simply screw into the mount on the front of the Beastgrip. 

It's really easy to use the alan key provided and adjust the mount to fit your phone, if needed. I have a Sony Xperia Z5 compact and found that although the phone did fit, there was no way to mount the phone without the rubber grips constantly pressing on the buttons on the side. We mounted a few phones we had in the office, including an iPhone 5S and a Motorola Moto X Play, with no issues. It even supported an old Sony Ericsson J105i! 

Beastgrip Pro Performance

The Beastgrip feels really sturdy and holds the phone really tightly, giving you peace of mind. The provided lenses give a wider field of view than most smartphones, but the effect the 2 included lenses have on the images is definitely more pronounced with the fisheye lens. 

The grip is well made and feels really sturdy even just to hold. Of course, you need to make sure you tighten everything up properly after adjusting the grip for your phone. 

The included lenses perform well, each lens also has a macro lens that can be unscrewed and used separately for close-up images, but it's worth noting that the wide angle and fisheye lenses are blurry without the macro screwed to the back of them, the Macro lenses are part of the lens structure. 

We were able to capture some very detailed images with the macro lenses and you can shoot incredibly close to the subject. The wide angle lens didn't appear to make much of a difference to the field of view on the Motorola X-Play we used to take the images, but the fisheye was very effective. 

Beastgrip Pro Lens Bundle Sample Photos

Value For Money

Beastgrip is available for £199.99 for the kit we reviewed here, with the wide angle and fisheye lens included. Also available is a kit with just the wide angle lens for £169.99 and just the Beastgrip on its own is available for £139.99.

Other products to consider include Zeiss Exolens, available for £110.41 if you are just wanting lenses and aren't so bothered about the functionality of a grip. Other smartphone lens systems include Olloclip, available for around £60.48 but again these don't allow you to attach accessories to your phone. 

If you are a videographer that needs the ultimate in stability and flexibility for your smartphone, then the Beastgrip is a pretty unique product that fills a niche gap in the market that's growing. 

Beastgrip Pro Verdict

The Beastgrip is well made and very versatile, allowing it to be attached to rigs, and also letting you attach various accessories to it. If you're into serious video production with your smartphone, then it's sure to be an extremely useful addition to your armoury. For stills photos, it's a little chunky to carry around, but does give you the option to mount the phone on a tripod for a steadier image. 

It's pretty unique and is really the only thing available on the market for serious smartphone video makers that want something professional and versatile. It's a great tool for any serious videographer and as such we are happy to recommend it. 

Beastgrip Pro Pros

Strong and sturdy
Holds phone safely
Versatile
 

Beastgrip Pro Cons

Grip presses in buttons on Sony Xperia Z5 Compact 
Quite chunky
 

FEATURES
HANDLING
PERFORMANCE
VALUE FOR MONEY
VERDICT

The Beastgrip Pro is a unique produce for smartphone videographers that is really well equipped and versatile.