DJI’s smartphone gimbals have always chased one goal: delivering cinema-smooth footage without forcing you to carry a heavy rig.

The Osmo Mobile 8P (OM 8P) makes its priorities clear right out of the box. This is not a simple refresh. DJI rebuilt how you control the gimbal, and that decision shapes the entire shooting experience.

Freedom behind the lens

The biggest change is the FrameTap remote, and it’s the kind of upgrade that fixes a problem you didn’t realize was slowing you down until it’s gone.

On the standard OM 8, adjusting your framing meant reaching for your phone every time, which broke the flow of shooting and pulled you out of the moment.

FrameTap puts that control back in your hand. You can reframe shots and manage the gimbal without touching your phone at all, and for anyone shooting solo, that alone changes how usable the whole setup feels. Tracking has taken a real step forward too.

ActiveTrack 8.0, paired with Module 2, held onto its subject even after they stepped out of frame for a moment, then picked them back up without much fuss.

It also lets you sit off-center in the shot instead of forcing you into the middle every time, which gives you more room to compose something that doesn’t look like every other gimbal video.

None of that would matter much if the gimbal itself wasn’t solid, and it still is. The OM 8P holds onto the same foldable design, magnetic phone clamp, and built-in tripod that made the OM 8 easy to live with.

And it remains one of the better compact options for stabilization, tracking, and portability in one package.

The tripod legs are a touch wider this time, and that extra width does make a noticeable difference on uneven ground.

The trade-offs in touch

The trade-off for all that new remote functionality is a control scheme that takes more getting used to. More of the gimbal’s functions now live on the FrameTap touchscreen, the joystick is smaller, and switching between shooting modes takes a few extra taps compared to the OM 8. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it’s a learning curve you’ll need to budget time for.

DJI also removed the zoom and focus wheel, so if you leaned on that dial for quick adjustments, you’ll feel its absence here. Module 2 no longer lets you plug a DJI wireless mic in directly either.

You’ll need to connect it to your phone instead, which adds a step to a setup that used to be simpler. Phone compatibility is still a limiting factor as well. DJI lists support for phones up to around 300g and 11mm thick, so bigger phones or ones in chunky cases may not clamp in properly.

Finding your ideal workflow

The OM 8P makes the most sense for solo creators who want dependable tracking and the freedom of remote framing without stepping up to a dedicated camera like the DJI Osmo Pocket.

If you’re already shooting on a phone with a solid camera, this fills the gap nicely. It’s a tougher sell if you prefer physical buttons over touchscreen menus, or if your phone runs on the larger and heavier side, since fitting it onto the clamp might be a problem before you even get to shooting.

Price, availability

DJI is offering the OM 8P in three combos, so how much you pay depends on how much of the ecosystem you actually need.

• Standard Combo (PhP 7,499): the gimbal itself, with 8th-gen stabilization and the detachable FrameTap remote included.
• Advanced Tracking Combo (PhP 9,199): adds the Multifunctional Module 2 for the improved subject tracking we tested.
• Creator Combo (PhP 11,099): the full kit, built for creators who want everything DJI bundles in from the start.

Is the DJI Osmo Mobile 8P your GadgetMatch?

The DJI Osmo Mobile 8P asks you to relearn a few habits in exchange for a gimbal that finally lets go of your phone. If hands-free framing and steadier tracking matter more to you than a dedicated zoom dial, this is worth the adjustment.

If you’d rather keep things exactly as they were on the OM 8, that learning curve might be the deciding factor.

Swipe right if you shoot alone often and have been waiting for a gimbal remote that actually works. The FrameTap remote alone justifies the upgrade if reaching for your phone mid-shot has been slowing you down.

Consider this if reliable tracking matters to you, especially if you’ve had a subject wander out of frame and stay lost on older gimbals.

And of course, get this if you already own a capable phone under the weight and thickness limits, and you’d rather invest in a smartphone rig than jump to a dedicated camera like the Osmo Pocket.

Swipe left if you lean on physical dials for zoom and focus, and moving those functions to a touchscreen sounds like a downgrade rather than an upgrade.

This is not for you if you use a DJI wireless mic and want it plugged directly into the module without routing through your phone first. Or, your phone runs heavier or bulkier than DJI’s limits allow, since no amount of enthusiasm fixes a clamp that won’t close.

Westminster Abbey isn’t just another stop on the London tourist trail.

It’s the stage for coronations, royal weddings, and burials that span nearly a thousand years, all still playing out under the same vaulted ceilings that have been standing since before most countries had names.

Once you get past the crowds and the audio guides, a quieter version of the abbey starts to show itself: worn stone steps, poets resting a few feet from kings, light that shifts across the nave like it’s in on the performance too.

While losing track of time in Poets’ Corner (yes, me, playing amateur historian for an afternoon), I unfolded the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra and decided the abbey deserved more than a quick tourist snap.

All photos captured using the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra.

Step on a scale at a doctor’s office and your health usually gets summed up in one number. Weight divided by height squared. That’s your BMI, and it’s been the default health metric for almost 200 years.

It was never built for that job. BMI was invented in the 1830s as a statistical shortcut for studying populations, not for telling an individual person anything meaningful about their body. It can’t tell the difference between a muscular athlete and someone who’s out of shape but happens to weigh the same. It ignores bone density, body water, and where fat actually sits in the body, which matters more than most people realize.

The metrics that actually matter are the ones BMI was never designed to catch: how much of your body is muscle, how much is fat, and where that fat is sitting.

The muscle question BMI can’t answer

Skeletal muscle is the body’s metabolic engine. It’s what keeps your resting metabolic rate up, what protects your joints, and what determines how well you move as you get older. Losing it quietly, without knowing, is one of the bigger blind spots in how people track their own health.

Fat isn’t one thing either. Subcutaneous fat, the kind just under the skin, carries far less risk than visceral fat, which wraps around internal organs and is directly linked to cardiovascular problems. A person can lose weight and still be carrying dangerous levels of visceral fat. BMI has no way of showing that.

This is also why short-term weight drops can be misleading. A lot of what shows up on the scale in the first week or two of any diet is water loss, not real change in body composition. The number moves, but it doesn’t mean much yet.

Why this is showing up in headlines right now?

Part of why this conversation is happening now, rather than five years ago, comes down to the rise of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound.

GLP-1, or glucagon-like peptide-1, is a natural gut hormone that signals fullness to the brain. These medications mimic it, slowing digestion and dulling appetite, which lets people eat significantly less and lose weight fast.

That speed is exactly what exposed the problem. Rapid weight loss burns fat and muscle together, not just fat. Lose 20 pounds on a GLP-1 drug, and both the scale and a BMI calculator will call it a clean win.

If a meaningful chunk of that was skeletal muscle, metabolic rate drops, joint support weakens, and the risk of physical frailty goes up, none of which shows up in that one number.

Dr. Hon Pak, Head of Digital Health Globally at Samsung Electronics, has pointed out that with GLP-1 therapies in the picture, raw weight lost can’t be the metric that defines success anymore. The focus has to shift to what kind of weight is being lost.

Kevin Duffy, CEO of iFit, has made a similar point: BMI stuck around because it’s easy to calculate from just height and weight, not because it’s the right thing to track. Muscle mass and body fat percentage matter far more, they’ve just historically been hard to measure outside a lab.

What your watch can measure now

Getting real numbers on muscle mass and visceral fat used to mean an expensive clinical scan. That’s the part that’s changed.

Samsung has built Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis sensors into the Galaxy Watch, sending a low-level microcurrent through the body to estimate skeletal muscle mass, body fat percentage, body water, and basal metabolic rate, all from your wrist.

For anyone losing weight, whether through a GLP-1 medication or a more traditional route, that gives real visibility into whether the weight coming off is fat or muscle.

It’s the kind of feedback that lets someone actually adjust, adding resistance training or upping protein intake, instead of finding out the hard way months later.

Samsung pairs this with Samsung Food, which uses AI to look at what’s actually in someone’s kitchen and suggest protein-forward meals that support muscle retention.

Karthik Poriya, Head of Product at Samsung Food, has noted that people tend to fixate on small day-to-day food decisions when what actually moves the needle is the trend over weeks and months. AI is what makes it possible to zoom out and see that trend instead of getting lost in it.

Combine body composition data with sleep tracking, activity monitoring, and a broader Energy Score, and the whole framework shifts. It’s no longer about getting lighter.

It’s about getting stronger, protecting muscle, and extending healthspan rather than chasing a number that was never built to measure any of that in the first place.