What’s up everyone Hope you guys are having a safe and great day or night depending on when you see this article. Today we’re going to be going over several smartphone accessories that I’ve been using with the Galaxy S 20 Ultra. That being said, these will work with other smartphones, such the S 20, or s 20 plus, so if you didn’t pick up an ultra, it is all good. If you want a more cost conscious style article, let me know and I’ll come up with some cheaper alternatives.
It’s gonna be a longer form article, so I decided to break it up into two different categories. You can follow the time code in the description if you feel like jumping around. I know many of you are already familiar with pataka. But in Case you’re not, they specialize in premium smartphone and lifestyle accessories, things like many carbon fiber smartphone cases, docks and chargers like this one. I’ve been using one of their newer style cases called the easy mag Case for the espheni Ultra and it’s been awesome. The EZ mag Portion of the Case is due to a tiny unseen unfelt strip of metal in the back of the Case.
This piece of metal allows the phone to be attached to many easy mag docks and mounts magnetically. Of course this allows for stupid easy mounting and unmounting since you no longer have to fumble. One of the EZ mag Case accessories I’ve been using is the car mount. It’s easily the best looking car charger I’ve ever used. It’s made of a combination of high quality plastics, carbon fiber, of course, and stainless steel. The result is a luxury sports car looking wireless car mount that can charge your S 20 Ultra with wireless Quick Charge 3.0 speeds. It works fantastic thanks to the built in fan to dissipate the heat when in use.
This is very important for us poor Flora jackasses our steering wheels or when sitting on leather seats after our car has been out in the sun all day. I have from pataka is the air train. It’s made of stainless steel carbon fiber and it has a nice soft microfiber lining. Unlike other desktop wireless charging docks. area features three different charging coils. positioning device in a specific way really isn’t necessary.
I just set my phone down on the carbon fiber the charges that I just keep moving. There’s no repositioning or anything like that. And the microfiber have been I keep things like my Galaxy buds plus glasses and a wallet. It’s pretty big can hold quite a bit. I highly recommend the airtrain.
They use a similar concept to Pathak is easy mag Case assessories in the sense that everything is done through magnets, the differences you can use almost Case with the arm stick, and even go caseless since a round piece of metal is included in the box that has a three inch backside for attaching it to your phone. The actual iron stick is a round magnet that sticks to the phone and features to rubber metal thingies.
They can easily be bent to either prop your phone up or wrap around a pole or bar for holding your phone in the air. Plus there’s a quarter 20 back here for attaching the iron stand or other things like an articulating arm. The arm stand that I have is technically an engineering sample. So the actual retail version may be a little bit different. Just keep that in mind. Nonetheless, I really do like it. I think it looks great on a desk. It’s fantastic for product shots, and B roll. pick one of these up.
You’ll thank me later because the adjustability in the actual stand is awesome. In my last video, I received several questions on Twitter. I use on my Xbox controller for gaming. It’s from power a and I think I paid like 15 bucks for it. I can’t really remember links to everything in this video can be found in the description so that way you can get up to date pricing by clicking those links there. Also my affiliate links just to give you a heads up.
I picked it up because it was cheap, sturdy and convenient. It snaps right on to the Xbox controller your phone to ensure that you get that perfect angle just make sure that you’re using a Bluetooth Xbox controller since there are two different types out there an adapter for Bluetooth use Nomad makes some of my favorite smartphone accessories. They have awesome and high quality cases wallets, key chains and many other things.
But the one thing I use every single day more than other accessory is their shorts. multicolor I always have one of my bags since I use a lot of devices that feature different ways to charge them such USB C, micro USB, and then lightning, So all you have to do is just bring this one cable, and a power bank. And now I can charge all of my devices. The cable that I have here is a braided cable.
And it’s been really durable. And I’ve been using nomades braided cables for years, and I’ve only broken one, which happened to be my own fault. which are even stronger. So if you want the best of the best, the most durable just get the Kevlar one. And they work great with Portable power banks, like I said, desktop or nightstand docs that have USB ports, or for connecting things to a computer. Literally, these are my most used accessory period, I mean using the galaxy buds plus quite a bit lately, and they’ve become one of my favorite pairs of wireless earbuds.
If you’re using a galaxy smartphone, I highly recommend picking up a pair of these, they sound really good and can be the app using the EQ if the sound out of the box isn’t good or pleasing to you. Otherwise, no matter what you do to the EQ settings, it’s not going to sound good it should, the battery life of the earbuds in the Case is pretty good. And the active noise cancellation on these is top notch in my personal opinion, it’s not like the best of the best, you’re getting, I think it does a pretty good job.
Like I said I recommend these if you’re using a galaxy smartphone. But I wanted to add that they work just good on other Android device. If you have an iPhone, I would just stick to the AirPods Pro. I want to recommend for use is a USB C thumb drive or a micro SD card. My favorite thumb drive for smartphone use is this Samsung one. It’s crazy small and it has fast transfer speeds.
As for micro SD cards, I use lexar cards since they’ve been really reliable. Plus, they’re pretty affordable. Check out my storage Tips and Tricks video for more information on getting the most out of external storage and your Galaxy device. Alright, so let’s transition into content creation assessories. And the first thing I recommend for Samsung phone with built in dex capabilities is a Portable monitor, a keyboard and a mouse.
You don’t have to go crazy and spend money to get a great experience that is similar to a Chromebook. The monitor that I’m using is the wi max at 15.6 inch 1080 p monitor from Andy sending. It has an IPS panel that looks good and is great for photo editing, office work a larger display. It’s not crazy bright by means.
It has plenty of customization settings for dialing in a good looking photo plus it has power pass through so you can charge your phone by plugging in the phone’s wall charger into the monitor and then use a separate cable to connect your phone to the monitor. There’s an HDMI Port making even connecting it to a Nintendo Switch ps4 or an Xbox. I’ve used this monitor a display on my MacBook Pro, and it’s worked good in that aspect. As for a keyboard and mouse you can use Bluetooth keyboard mouse or trackpad.
So I use a foldable keyboard and trackpad combo from iclever. It’s crazy compact and works great with decks. The trackpad is responsive but don’t expect it to be anywhere near good more premium trackpads like from Microsoft or Apple. The keyboard itself has tactile keys. But keep in mind this keyboard is mad small and compact, so it’s very cramped. It takes some time to get used to but you get used to it I personally think it works pretty good.
Next up we have smartphone gimbals I use the crane mtwo but for this video I wanted to keep things a little bit more simple and more smartphone oriented. The two gimbals and the Zune smooth x. Both of these gimbals are crazy compact even pocketable depending on the pants that you’re wearing, and both are under 80 bucks. The ICD x from home can support more weight than the smooth or a third access giving you more options, the ICD x and almost everything needs to be controlled to the app itself, which I guess is pretty normal for most smartphone style gimbals.
And definitely allows for some awesome shots including the very popular Inception mode. The smooth x is smaller Portable the IC x, the ability to tilt or that third access and it supports less weight. It’s important to mention that both of these smartphone gimbals support the Galaxy S 20 Ultra with no problem. So I’m not sure how much of the weight limits is going to mean to you.
The smooth x is a different type of smartphone gimbal since is more geared towards selfie shooting. It can extend pretty far and is angled perfectly for portrait style videos making it, Igy stories, tik tok etc. I prefer the gene app Over the Home app, but honestly, I prefer to use the stock camera app since I want to take advantage of the 8k video, plus many of the other settings that Samsung has on their devices. The smooth x is a little cheaper than the IC x. But again, it’s not going to be perfect for everyone.
If you’re serious about smartphone videography, and really want to get some awesome stable shots, go with the home. If you want something easy to use and plan on using it mostly for portrait style videos, check out the smooth x. Another great tool for content creation and smartphone videography is a Portable slider. I’ve been using but the one that I’ve been using the most, and the one that I’ve enjoyed the most is the zeplin micro slider is basically an edible chrome without the arrow chrome tax and price tag, it can extend much further than what you see while it’s stationary.
Since the entire track moves rather than just the carriage. It’s a little heavier than most Compact Portable sliders, but it’s much smaller in length for travel while being able to extend further than those other sliders. It supports plenty of weight. So if you’re serious about pursuing filmmaking or content creation, you’ll be able to use this slider with a DSLR or mirrorless camera in the future. If you purchase this letter by itself, it works pretty good, but the resistance is super high straight out of the box.
If you have some Cash, you could pick up the motor to go with the slider itself. It works really good. It takes Sony NPF style batteries which are really affordable and easy to come by. It can be controlled by the app, which I have to say is probably my number one complaint about this letter, the app is a little confusing, and the layout is kind. There are many options for assessories that haven’t been announced or just aren’t available.
So they take up a lot of space and clutter up. The good thing is you can control the slider speed and the in and out Points by using the buttons located on the slider itself. You can push the forward or back arrows for a manual slide. The other accessory you can get is the bottom plate for the slider which has built in feet. I love this thing for the built in quick release. So I can easily pop it off a tripod to get you know like a tabletop time lapse or maybe put it on the ground is definitely on the pricier side. So this is something that I would pick up if I was just getting started.
But if you already have the essentials and are looking for a cool piece of gear to get shots, it’s a great option. Lastly, let’s talk tripods there are different tripods out there for smartphones such the small Pixie tripod from in photo or it’s bigger brother. Now these are great tabletop style tripods, if you’re trying to mount something like these up and slider to them, they’re just gonna collapse the switch pod is like a different beast because it’s a great option in terms of vlogging and it can support the weight of a slider plus a camera.
However, if you’re limited on kind of adjustability, I personally believe that a tripod is something that you should spend in immediately. If you’re serious about content creation, it’s pretty much the foundation to most shots and since it secures and stabilizes your phone camera plus other gear kind of don’t want to cheap out on if you can afford it the peak design tripod is killer in a several different add on accessories like the flat plate that I have here for mounting your own fluid or ball head. There’s spike feets and then there’s the option to shorten the tripod in order to make it more like a tabletop tripod for vlogging. The carbon fiber version is expensive but it comes with a lifetime warranty.
So if you accidentally break it or malfunctions, pick design will repair it or replace it which is unheard, but I said that can be swapped out for the flat plate. The cool thing about using the built in ball head is that you can use the included phone clamp which can be found at the end of the telescoping middle column. Honestly, I can’t lie this thing is really sweet. Initially, I was a hater but after using it, I’ve been converted and now I’m a big fan.
If you’re just getting started and are on a budget, there are cheaper tripods out there. But if you can at least get the money up to get the aluminum version of the peak design tripod, I think you’re going to be very happy. The aluminum version is quite a bit cheaper and still has all of the features of the CF version, including this cool Case for protecting your tripod when traveling. Both the aluminum and the carbon fiber variants can support over 20 pounds. So it’s overkill for a smartphone.
But now you have wiggle room for things like these up in slider a smartphone to a full camera in the future. It’s like I said in the very beginning, this isn’t really a budget specific list. It’s a bunch of accessories that I’ve been using more and more with my Galaxy S funny ultra. With that said, if you would like me to do a budget style video with a similar format to this one, or you have anything to add to this list.
