The DJI Osmo Pocket 3 worked fine with the Samsung Flip 6…until the Mic Mini update hit the Mimo app, then things went south fast. Is anyone else having these issues?
First symptoms
At first, the only issue I noticed was a slight 0.5s-1.0s lag in the audio. I mistakenly attributed this to the DJI Mic 2. This seemed annoying, but it wasn’t too major. However, as time went on, additional issues became apparent.
On further inspection
Additional testing, however, showed that it was not the Mic 2. Playback on the Pocket 3 directly had no lag, neither did my phone’s native camera app when connected to the Mic 2. At this point I contacted DJI customer service. They requested a video of the audio lag. In attempting to shoot this requested video, we noticed that the mode had changed from standard video mode to low light on its own. Later attempts to capture more such videos had similar issues with the device switching itself from standard video mode to panoramic shot all by itself.
Additionally, on the Mimo app, not on the device directly, I repeatedly got SD card errors which alternated between saying that there was either an issue with the SD card or that there was no SD card inserted when there was.
Mimo Osmo 7 update saving grace?
In between my back & forth with their customer service, DJI announced the Osmo 7 gimbal, & a related update hit the Mimo app. At first I was excited, hoping that they had patched the Samsung compatibility issues with this update. However, after updating, things were not better but worse, with even video playback being extremely hit or miss & connection stability worse than ever.
My attempted fixes
I’m not a tech noob, so I know the basics. I performed both a factory reset of the Pocket 3 as well as clearing the Mimo caches &, when that didn’t work, a complete uninstall/reinstall of the Mimo app. However, nothing had any effect on the issues above.
Not optimized for Samsung
In conducting some online research to try to determine the cause and fix for these issues. it seems apparent that most of the people with who have issues with this camera are users of Samsung & other Android devices. It seems that DJI does not care about Samsung users. This is made apparent by the fact that they have released the Mimo app directly on the Apple App Store, whereas Android users must download an APK file instead of using the more regulated Google Play store. Given that DJI is a Chinese company, & China’s most popular phones are not iPhones but Androids, it really makes me wonder why they would choose to prioritize iPhone users instead.
Why I bought the DJI Pocket 3
I had gone from being a longtime Samsung user (even when I worked for Apple) to trying to use an iPhone 13 Pro Max here in Japan, since most people use iPhones here, but I only lasted a few months before selling that iPhone & buying a Samsung Flip 6. I bought the Pocket 3 during that period because I was extremely dissatisfied with the iPhone. Apart from the extreme inconvenience of iPhones missing a multitude of basic features (quick launchers/clipboard/dual-screening to name a few). the native iPhone camera is just disgusting. Often applying a strange orange filter to everything, especially pictures of people. Of course, you can try to use iPhone’s other filters, but rather than fixing issues, those tend to make people look dull/ruddy. I actually can’t even recognize myself in a lot of iPhone shot pictures or video. I look fine & like myself in Samsung-shot pictures. Polaroid pictures are very popular here in Japan, & I like fine/like myself in those as well. iPhone pictures just do not look like me. I’m not the only one saying this There are more multitudes of videos across social media complaining of the same thing, saying that the iPhone camera is not designed for people especially the internal camera. Not enough people are talking about this but the iPhone’s cameras have gotten so bad that many are choosing to buy vintage digital cameras rather than use the iPhone camera. It was due to issues like this, but I decided I needed an entirely separate camera. which is why I bought the Pocket 3. It was a nice fix that I continued to use even after buying my Samsung Flip 6 until these latest Mimo updates broke it.
Still waiting on a resolution
It seems unlikely that. I will be able to continue using the DJI Pocket 3. My conversations with customer support are not giving me a lot of confidence. They say they want to pull the logs, which I have no problem with, but does not seem to indicate that they can or will do anything for me directly. It might be for the benefit of Samsung users somewhere in the distant future. Emphasis on “Might.” However, it seems likely that it won’t solve my immediate issues. While you can transfer the files from the Pocket 3 to a device directly without the Mimo app, any sort of filters will not be applied. Everything must be done through the Mimo app if you wish to use them. I do not want to buy a new iPhone so that I can continue using this Pocket 3, which I really don’t need now that I have a Samsung phone again. While I have an old iphone without service laying around, I do not want to carry it around with me just to transfer files to it, then fiddle around with hotspots/SIM-cards to send it to a cloud & then download it to my Samsung. It’s just such an extreme time-wasting inconvenience. The Pocket 3 was fine when I had a lousy iPhone, but now that I have a Samsung phone again, I simply don’t have much need for this camera anymore as it is, let alone with the added extreme inconvenience of having to move video files between 3 just devices just to have any use of it. I have asked if DJI will provide me a refund. I am awaiting their reply as of this writing.
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