Affordable option with some serious drawbacks
This tripod/selfie stick is really useful but pretty quirky when you try to use it, especially if you need to take it out often, or you're using it with the back-facing camera instead of in selfie mode.<br /><br />The wireless feature of the remote works via Bluetooth. The remote on the tripod triggers the camera shutter by sending a signal to change the volume of your phone. That means to use the remote, you have to have a camera app that lets you take a picture by pressing the volume button on your phone. If your default camera doesn't do that you should be able to download a compatible camera app in the Play/app store. Btw, if you don't have your camera app open when you press the button on the remote, it will just bump your ringtone volume up.<br /><br />The tripod is a telescoping metal tube with a phone clamp on one end and a convertible handle/tripod base on the other. There's a tiny remote that slides into the top of the tripod base, so you can either leave the remote in the handle and use your thumb to take photos while you hold the selfie stick, or you can remove the remote and take pictures without touching the tripod or phone. (And don't forget that you can trigger the shutter on many camera apps by saying "cheese," "smile," etc.)<br /><br />The remote runs on a coin battery, CR1632. The box says it's replaceable.<br /><br />It was crazy easy to pair the remote with my phone. I turned on the remote by holding the button down for a bit, turned on Bluetooth on my phone, scanned for devices and tapped "SelfieCom" when it came up. Done! (To turn off the remote you hold the button down until it stops blinking.)<br /><br />The hardest part of setup is actually getting the phone into the clamp and adjusting it. It's hard to line it up so you can access all the buttons and not cover any cameras or anything. I wanted to use the back camera for pictures for a review, but I accidentally closed the clamp on the power button, couldn't get it off again for many seconds, and rebooted my phone. Review deleted :( My fault but man, really? It's like a snapping turtle.<br /><br />You can put the phone into the clamp face up or face down, but if you want to angle the back camera down toward the ground (like if you want to take a back-camera photo showing an item from above), you have to put the phone in the clamp backwards so that the clamp covers part of the the screen. You can't tip the phone both forward and backward. It only tips forward because it's designed for selfies. (Like you can adjust it up and down to get pics of any part of your body, but you can't flip it over to get pics view of someone in front of you.) It's hard to explain. But if you're looking at this as a cheap phone tripod for your back camera, it's not ideal. It's for selfies as it says.<br /><br />The tripod head can't be twisted on the telescoping pole, so if you've placed the phone on the tripod unevenly to keep the clamp from pushing buttons or covering your viewfinder, the unbalanced phone will make the tripod tip over, and you can't twist the clamp on the pole so that the phone overhangs one of the legs and the weight will be balanced. Some phones will hang out over the spot between two legs where there's nothing to hold them up. That means you have to hold the phone up, so there's little benefit in having a tripod.<br /><br />It is nice that the clamp is really narrow so when you put the phone in backwards, the clamp only covers a very small amount of the screen. (But it would be better if you could flip the phone cameras to point downward on both sides.) I used a different phone stand with a wide clamp and it prevented me from using my fingerprint scanner. This one works fine with my fingerprint scanner. (And btw it seems like a good stand for a phone that's repurposed as a security camera, because you wouldn't have to keep taking it out of the clamp like you do with wider clamps.)<br /><br />It is fussy to get the phone in the clamp as I mentioned, and you have to put the phone in the clamp different ways to get different camera angles and avoid pressing buttons, so it's really a hassle if you put the phone in wrong or need to get a different angle or something, and you have to take the phone out and put it back in. The clamp is spring-loaded and there's no good handle to grab on to open it up or ease it onto the phone. It just snaps on. Plus it seems delicate so it's stressful pulling on it, thinking you might break it.<br /><br />I don't think it will last that long, especially the moving parts, and I'm concerned about trying to replace the battery.<br /><br />I wish this were fully adjustable and had a little grip/handle to hold to open and close the clamp.  But if you need an affordable tripod that doesn't have to be too durable or adjustable, this could be an option. It was really helpful for taking pictures once I got it set up.
Rating: 3 stars