Insta360’s Snap Is A Tiny Magnetic Phone Screen For Taking Rear-camera Selfies

Insta360 conscionable announced nan Snap, a caller smartphone accessory designed to amended nan value of your selfies. It useful for illustration a integer reflector magnetically attached to nan backmost of your Android aliases iOS smartphone truthful you tin preview and decently framework shots utilizing its much tin rear cameras, while touchscreen functionality lets you power camera apps without having to perpetually flip your telephone around. After testing nan Snap pinch my iPhone 16 Pro for a week I recovered it to beryllium an effective measurement to usage my phone’s aggregate rear cameras for selfies, but nan accessory is not without immoderate frustrating quirks.

The Insta360 Snap Selfie Screen is disposable starting coming done nan company’s online store successful 2 versions. There’s a $79.99 modular exemplary and an $89.99 upgrade that adds an integrated ringing ray astir nan screen.

Instead of utilizing a wireless Bluetooth aliases Wi-Fi relationship that tin perchance adhd complexity and lag, nan Snap connects to phones that support video output complete USB-C utilizing a short integrated cable. So you don’t person to hop into connectivity settings each nan time, nan Snap’s 3.5-inch touchscreen automatically powers connected and connects erstwhile I plug nan accessory into my iPhone.

However, location is an other measurement for iPhone users nan first clip you usage nan Snap. You request to alteration nan screen’s touchscreen functionality by hopping into iOS’s accessibility settings and turning connected nan zoom feature. For Android phones nan touchscreen functionality useful automatically aft surface mirroring aliases casting is approved erstwhile prompted.

The Snap lacks a artillery of its ain and alternatively draws each nan powerfulness it needs from your phone. Insta360 warns that continuous usage could consequence successful a 15 to 20 percent drain connected your phone’s battery. But nan convenience of nan surface connecting truthful easy and ne'er having a dormant artillery erstwhile you request it acold outweighs nan added drain connected your phone.

Insta360’s Snap is perchance a amended replacement to screen-equipped smartphone cases for illustration Dockcase’s Selfix, and not conscionable because it’s compatible pinch much phones. While nan Selfix only shows a mini information of your camera app’s unrecorded preview, nan Snap lets you interact pinch your smartphone’s full screen.

The Snap screen’s facet ratio isn’t arsenic gangly arsenic what you’ll find connected modern phones. To compensate you person nan action to position your full telephone surface pinch achromatic bars connected either side, aliases to toggle a zoomed mode that wholly fills nan Snap’s screen. Despite making mini matter harder to publication and mini buttons tricky to tap, I recovered nan full-screen attack to beryllium much usable. The zoom action tin make your camera app’s unrecorded preview larger, but it cuts disconnected nan apical and bottommost of your phone’s screen, making immoderate buttons inaccessible successful nan process.

You tin quickly move betwixt nan 2 zoom modes utilizing 1 of 2 buttons connected nan broadside of nan Snap. The different is simply a reflector fastener that reverses nan screen. That whitethorn look for illustration an overseas characteristic to person a dedicated fastener for, until you move your telephone sideways to sprout a horizontal selfie and find the-onscreen preview upside-down. The reflector fastener solves that, and while having your preview flipped tin occasionally beryllium confusing while adjusting nan framing of a shot, it ne'er affects nan photos you’re taking.

The optional built-in ringing ray connected nan type of nan Snap I tested is decidedly worthy nan other $10, moreover if it makes nan accessory astir 6mm thicker than nan cheaper version. There are 5 levels of brightness and 3 colour somesthesia settings — neutral, cool, and lukewarm — that are adjusted utilizing a brace of buttons beneath nan surface that rhythm done nan various settings aliases move nan ray disconnected completely. It tin amended your selfies successful less-than-ideal lighting conditions but tin besides beryllium utilized erstwhile taking pictures normally, offering much illumination than nan LED ray connected nan backmost of astir phones.

The biggest situation pinch nan Snap is learning to clasp your telephone backward without accidentally rubbing its screen. The elastic hinge connected nan Snap’s protective screen allows it to beryllium folded backmost astir truthful it covers your phone’s surface to forestall accidental interactions, but it’s obscurity adjacent ample capable to screen nan full thing. Even pinch nan Snap’s screen flipped astir I still often triggered unwanted surface swipes aliases pressed onscreen buttons I didn’t mean to while trying to clasp some devices successful 1 hand. Being capable to move disconnected my iPhone’s surface while utilizing nan Snap would lick that, but that’s not an option.

The Insta360 Snap Selfie Screen isn’t nan cleanable solution for snapping rear camera selfies, but it’s 1 of nan champion and astir versatile options now disposable fixed nan limitations of surface mirroring pinch iOS and Android. You tin usage it pinch immoderate telephone that supports video retired complete USB-C, and pinch afloat touchscreen entree to your OS you’re capable to threat selfies and video pinch immoderate camera app you want, moreover Instagram. It’s not arsenic slim arsenic a smartphone lawsuit pinch a screen, but being capable to set camera settings, edit photos, and jump betwixt apps without having to move your telephone astir makes it an upgrade worthy considering.

Photography by Andrew Liszewski / The Verge