Most people use their smartphones as their primary camera. It’s not surprising, considering modern smartphones come with pretty impressive photo and video recording capabilities for a device you already carry in your pocket every single day. The Belkin Stage PowerGrip looks to make the smartphone an even better everyday camera.
A MagSafe accessory, the device magnetically attaches to the back of your phone smartphone, immediately giving it an ergonomic grip for easier handling while shooting photos and video for those times you don’t have a smartphone gimbal within reach. Even better, it pulls double duty as a power bank, allowing it to wirelessly charge your phone’s battery all throughout the day.
The Belkin Stage PowerGrip is quite the large accessory, so this will definitely be an uncomfortable fit in your pocket. For the extra size, though, you get a DSLR-style camera grip that makes handheld shooting with a smartphone a much more comfortable affair, allowing you to capture photos and videos without awkwardly holding the phone with your fingers. It also comes with a Bluetooth shutter button that you can use to quickly snap pictures and start/stop recordings with a tactile feel, making your smartphone feel a lot more like a dedicated camera.
When attached to the phone, the grip can also serve as a phone stand that lets you set down your phone upright in both portrait and landscape orientations. That’s right, the grip pulls double duty as a stand, allowing you to set the phone down on any flat surface and keep it stable, making it a viable replacement for a tripod on top of allowing you to watch movies on your phone pretty comfortably. In case you want to use it with a tripod, there’s also a 1/4-inch screw mount, so it should easily work with any tripod in your gear bag.
The Belkin Stage PowerGrip houses a 9,300 mAh battery, which should deliver up to two times additional charge for most smartphones. Do note, it only offers 7.5W magnetic charging, so you don’t quite get the fast charging speeds of Qi2-compatible devices. Aside from wirelessly charging your phone, it also comes with a retractable USB-C cable that you can use to charge other devices, as well as a USB-C slot for attaching another charging cable. According to the outfit, it can charge up to three devices simultaneously, which is very handy. When recharging the power bank, by the way, you can use the retractable USB-C cable.
A small display out front lets you see battery levels, so you know exactly when it needs to be recharged as soon as you have a power outlet nearby. If you’re not using an iPhone with MagSafe, by the way, you can use the included magnetic attachment to snap it on the back of the phone, making it useful regardless of what smartphone make and model you’re using. Dimensions are 4.9 x 3.3 x 1.6 inches (width x height x depth), so it should be compact enough to fit in most bag and jacket pockets.
The Belkin Stage PowerGrip is available now in a variety of colors.
