Ultimate Smartphone Gadgets: Innovative Accessories Reviewed

The smartphone rig combines various gadgets, including lights, lenses, and a controller, to enhance its camera and gaming capabilities.

### The Ultimate Smartphone Gadgets: A Comprehensive Review
* 📱 This review explores a variety of **innovative smartphone gadgets** designed to **enhance functionality and user experience**.
* ☔ Starting with a $5 phone umbrella, it effectively **keeps the phone dry during rain**, earning a score of **6 out of 10 for its simplicity**.
* 💡 The Amaran GO, priced at **$29**, features a **magnetic attachment** and advanced lighting capabilities, providing a **softer light for selfies** and a score of **9 out of 10**, although it has **limited battery life**.
* 🧼 Next is a phone cleaning station that uses ultraviolet LEDs to sanitize phones, revealing a **significant reduction in bacteria**, although it's not perfect.
* An **$80 MagSafe suction cup** provides a secure mounting solution for phones but is criticized for its **high price**, being more realistically valued at **$7**, earning a **4 out of 10**.
* 📸 The ShiftCam SnapGrip Creator Kit, priced at **$150**, enhances mobile photography but suffers from a **subpar tripod design**, leading to a score of **5 out of 10**.
* 💾 The Lexar Professional Go portable SSD adds **2 terabytes of storage** and enables **higher quality video recording**, making it an **essential tool for content creators**.
* 🔫 Lastly, the Xgun Light Gun and a phone gaming console are reviewed, with the latter surprisingly performing well as a **battery bank**, earning a score of **7 out of 10** despite its flaws.

This is a smartphone, and these are the craziest, most powerful smartphone gadgets. We're going to combine all of their powers to build the most upgraded phone you have ever seen, with superpowers. Starting with a $5 phone umbrella for when you want to keep

your phone dry, but not your own body. So, it sticks to the back of your phone via suction cup. And then, let's say it starts tipping it down. Okay, stop, stop! The phone is bone dry. 6 out of 10. It does actually do its job; however,

dumb that job may be, the Amaran GO is definitely a step up, though. This thing has literally just come out. It's $29, and it actually looks amazing. So, it's got a magnet at the back, which you snap onto the back of your phone, and that is

locked in. And then, even if you're not on an iPhone, it comes with this sticky ring so that you can attach it onto any phone, or actually anything. And then, this turns it on. That is a massive improvement to a phone's torch because it's not just about

sheer brightness; it's the fact that the light is spread across a bigger area and that it's got this softening diffusion layer over it. Which all means, if I was lighting myself with my normal phone torch, I'd look like this. I'd have a ton

of harsh lines across my face, which would add up to make me look pretty unhandsome. But then this, this is literally a world apart. It's so much softer. It doesn't make me look like a Disney villain. But then, this is the magic trick.

The light flips up to both use that light while you're taking selfies, but also to use the LED mirror on the back to, well, first spot the cat fluff in your hair. But this actually makes such a difference that I want to use this for every single Instagram story I take from

now on. You've got brightness control over here, you've got color temperature control over here. The only thing that feels like it might be a touch lacking is the battery. I mean, at the rate this thing is depleting, I think we're talking less than an hour of juice. Still, though,

it feels like a 9 out of 10 gadget to me. Very well thought out. So, next up is the phone toaster. I'm kidding, it's actually a cleaning station, but it's pretty fascinating how it works. So first, let's take a swab of my phone before any

cleaning. Low-key going to expose myself here. I do remember reading, though, that your phone does hold up to 10 times more bacteria than a toilet seat, so it's not going to be good. So now we place that sample on the agar jelly, and if there's

significant bacteria on my phone, this is going to look pretty gross pretty quickly. So now we can load the phone in. That is damn cool! And it actually even works when the phone has a case on it. And then, on the inside, are 30 of the

most powerful form of ultraviolet LEDs firing within an aluminum chamber to get full sanitizing coverage. I'll get some gloves on. So, swab number two, I'll do the same thing. Yeah, let's get it all up there. And so now that agar is fully impregnated, so

We'll come back to these samples at the end to see if this is a scam or a savior. So now, at $80, we've got the MagSafe suction cup. This is from a company called Evolved, and when we bought it from their site, it definitely does say

that the retail price is $80. But looking at what we actually received, it's not immediately clear to me how. So, the concept is simple: you use the suction pad at the back to stick one on your bathroom mirror, you could stick one in the kitchen, you could stick one right

opposite the toilet. So at this point, we are $240 down. But then there's a magnet here, which means that without adding anything to your iPhone, you could just snap it in place and it will hold there. I will give it this: the suction is a lot more

powerful than it originally seems because this is actually a pressure trigger. When you press this mount against a wall, the trigger detects it, and then the mount sucks out the air through this hole here to create something that pretty closely resembles a vacuum seal. So yes, to do that, this

thing also has to have a very tiny battery inside of it. This is almost definitely the most secure method I've seen to mount a phone onto a wall, with the extra perk of, if you decided you wanted to charge your phone while it's on one of these, USB-C into here, and then

bam! Well, it works. It's actually really good. It just can't be $80 for this. Oh, okay. I know what's happened here. You know, as soon as you see like 30 back-to-back, five-star reviews from people who don't seem to have a second name... Yeah, this is...

a Drop Shipping site, which means the actual product must be from AliExpress. MagSafe suction... and oh, there it is. So this is a $7 product. For $7, actually, to be fair, I'd go as far as to say $9 out of 10. For $80? I'd probably say four.

We're already at a stage where we need this phone cage just to support all of these gadgets. But now is where these gadgets start to get really serious, 'cause this is the ShiftCam SnapGrip Creator Kit. Try say that 10 times! So this is

around $150, and it's designed to be everything you could want for your phone's camera. So this is the SnapPod, and then below that, in this – tell me this doesn't look at least a tiny bit sus – pouch, we've got the SnapGrip, which is

the central product. And that's attached to the SnapLight. Now that is a camera control... Apple? I mean, it's far from slimline, but if the goal is to make your phone feel like a DSLR camera, then that it does. Oh, works as a phone stand too!

It's pretty cool. But if that's where it ended, then I would say: fun idea, novelty gadget. I wouldn't use this. Where I think this gets interesting is that this SnapGrip actually uses this extra space that it's taking up for a battery. So

this is a 3,200 mAh cell that actually uses this MagSafe connection to not just secure itself, but also to charge your phone up. I'd say you should expect this grip to be able to charge an iPhone 14 Pro from 0 to 50%. Not great, as far as

Power banks go, but a damn good bonus if you are already the kind of person who is going to get one of these anyway. There's another trick, though. When you look at this thing, you would expect that this is locked in place, and it kind of is. I can shake this pretty confidently,

but I can actually rotate it because it's a MagSafe device, and that is kind of freaky. It is comfortable; it's just quite heavy when you pair the phone and the grip. The only downside of doing things this way is it means the grip

can't be hardwired into your phone, so this shutter button is a Bluetooth button. And you can kind of tell there's this ever-so-slight delay every time you capture, which, if you're into your cameras enough that you'd want to buy something like this, then you'll alter-

natively use your cameras enough that it will probably bother you. But we can build on this ecosystem. So this is the SnapLight. Oh wow! So it's definitely in the "better than your phone's flashlight" category. And this is the A-Man, which is actually just so much better, to be honest. It's

brighter, but at the same time it's softer on my face, while at the same time having this temperature control, which just makes this so much more of a pro tool. The only real benefit of the SnapLight is that it lets you flip its

mirror around. But then why would you ever want to do that because you can already see your face when you're taking selfie video? I guess you might want it for makeup, but I mean, if this is your makeup mirror, the situation is quite dire. But then the final piece to this

The puzzle is the Snap Pod. So this is the... so this is the tripod. So, pretty cool that you can actually attach all three parts of this rig together at once. I like that. So, I really like the idea of this. You know, more and more we film bits

of our videos using a phone because of how easy the phone makes it. And it feels like this whole kit kind of extends that ease into the professional space. Like, it's so cool being able to take my phone off like this and put it on like this,

adjust the angle up and down. And the fact that all three gadgets work together at the same time does create this really slick synergy. That was nearly a full send. This is actually good timing because it's part of my problem with the product. Who designs

a tripod that's meant to carry this much weight, but the legs don't extend any further than this? It doesn't even seem to matter what way you put the tripod legs, it will just topple. I feel like this whole snap system deserves a 5 out of 10.

Should probably stop using it before it becomes a *snapped* system. This rig was already looking dicey. We're about two gadgets off turning it into Optimus Prime. Not that I care, as long as the end footage keeps getting better and better. Now, if we really are trying to make this

the best phone camera ever, then there's another angle that we haven't touched on yet. Something that our sponsor, Lexar, has just figured out. So this is the Lexar Professional Go. It's a portable SSD that's a big deal for three reasons. First of all, this tiny thing can add up

2 terabytes of storage to your phone, so very possibly 10x what you can capture. The other upside, though, is it means that we can set our phone to now record in even higher quality. So now I can switch from the normal iPhone camera

to recording in the ProRes file format using the Blackmagic camera app. And if you want to see what the difference is, this is footage straight out of the normal iPhone camera set up on our lovely little rig. This is ProRes footage, which gives us so much color control. But

the final cherry on top is that the SSD comes with a hub which has four USB-C ports on it. So instead of just being the thing that takes up your phone slot, this actually becomes the center point of your rig. So let me add a microphone here

to improve my phone's audio quality. And then, even if I decide that I still want to charge my phone with a cable to get the maximum speed, I can still do that using this port here. Link below to find out more. Well, now we're just getting to

the straight-up weird. This is the Xgun Light Gun, which feels like a not-so-elegant name for something that's half a classic, very strange, as-seen-on-TikTok product, and then half an actually very serious gamer's controller. This thing was

$160, and that's actually on discount. Supposedly the retail price is $320. Of course it is. But if that were true, then that would mean you could actually get a phone and a controller for the price of this controller. So it had better be something special. So,

Its base, this functions as a normal Bluetooth controller. Although, a normal Bluetooth controller with a rather strange-looking protrusion coming out of it. It's pretty responsive, buttons are nice and clicky. I like the D-pad, but then there's this: gun mode. And I won't lie to

you, looking at the website description, this sounds bonkers. It uses gyroscope and laser for precise positioning, but then also it has built-in recoil when you fire. It is interesting. Like, obviously I'm not automatically an expert at playing games like this, but I could see how it would work, and the

tracking is actually pretty accurate, even though we could only get the gyro part of the positioning to work on phones. And then, every time you shoot, well, I wouldn't go as far as to call it recoil, but you feel a vibration. That said, would I ever actually want to play

a game like this? Not really. It's just like, when is this ever more comfortable than just this? You're never going to do this anywhere remotely public, for embarrassment reasons if not criminal ones. And this is just not a natural position to keep my wrist bent into.

Not to mention that the controller doesn't lock into either of these positions, giving the whole experience a pretty floppy feel, to be honest. And that this whole recoil thing, it doesn't adapt to what's happening in your game. So whether or not you're using a rapid-fire machine

gun or a single-shot rocket launcher, it will react and feel the exact same. So I'm going to say 4 out of 10. It's cool, but it's not useful. And there is no way they should be thinking about charging $320 for this. On the subject of gaming,

Though, here's a concept that thus far I have never seen work successfully: a gaming console for the back of your phone. Whoa, wait, what the hell? That looks sick! And then you turn it around, and that's the console. Not going to lie, I kind of just want to put it on like this.

I'm just so confused how the same company that made this masterpiece also made this. But this is kind of useful, too. It's not just a games console; this is also a 5,000 mAh battery bank, which means that instead of being a drag on

your phone's battery, it's actually sustaining itself while replenishing it. Wow, that is a bad speaker. I also can't reduce the volume. Oh my god, 500 games! This is the kind of dread I feel when I go to a restaurant and I realize the

menu has a thousand items. I actually think the computational power of this machine is so low that it is struggling to both play the music and keep up with my scrolling. What the hell? Okay, there's one called "Flying Turkey." I'm just going to go with it. Some absolutely inspired

design choices here. I mean, "Power of Game Console" along the side of the screen is something that Nintendo—I dare you to put on your Switch 2! It's a weirdly decent gaming experience, and yeah, you can play this stuff on the front of your

phone, and you probably *should* play it on the front of your phone, but I can see the appeal of wanting the physical input experience. And while I've been playing this, my phone has gone up... oh, 8% now. So I wouldn't go as far as to say it's a *good*

The speaker is appalling, and the MagSafe connection isn't the most secure by a long shot. But I actually, weirdly, could see myself running out of phone battery, flicking over to this side, playing a couple of games until my phone is ready to use again. I'd say a surprise

seven. Now, if you thought the light gun screamed TikTok gadget, well, this might just be the most TikTok gadget I have ever seen. No points for guessing where I found it. This is meant to be, basically, the final boss of wireless phone chargers. So this, at the top, gives 15W

wireless magnetic charging, which is good. That's the most current industry standard. We've got a watch charger over here. This is an AirPods charger. The main reason this exists, though, is this button here. How do they not know that it's going to hit the watch on the way down?

Just thinking of all the issues this mechanism needed to solve. There's an obvious "why" looming over this thing. Well, I guess it gives you two different ways to keep your phone: you can have it flat, or you can have it facing you. But presumably, once you've decided which way

you want it, when would you actually rotate it? It serves its base function. It's just nothing about the way that the product's been designed, or even the packaging, inspires any confidence in its quality. So I'm going to give it a five. But coming back to camera gear, if you

wanted to shoot not just good videos, but movies on your phone, then you'd want to veer towards something like the new Ulanzi phone cage, the VLONE. This thing is tanky. So the case slips onto the phone like this. It's actually kind of…

built a quick eject mechanism so that you're not trying to peel metal off your phone. As well, they've kept the MagSafe magnets free. It's got a foldable kickstand. I'm impressed. The main reason you would ever even think of going for a

phone cage like this is that it has a threaded back plate that allows you to attach lenses. Put it this way: the key factor that makes phone cameras not look as cinematic as proper mirrorless cameras is because they have had to design compressed lenses that fit into

sub 1 cm thick bodies. But now we can remove that limitation. So just before we get to the crazy Big Daddy lens, this is a 60 mm telephoto, which we can now just screw into our setup. So this is what our phone footage already looks like without

this lens, and you'll notice, by the way, how good the audio sounds now, given that we have this external microphone. But this is what it looks like with the lens. It's not just way more zoomed in, but the extra space that we've created within

the glass allows for that really natural, cinematic background blur. I just think this looks so good. But if you wanted to take this to the absolute extreme, this is a Macro Pro lens. You don't see phone gadgets like this very often. I mean, just

the way it's packaged makes it look like something James Bond would quietly set up at a 10th-story hotel room window before using it to kill someone three buildings away, and then pack it up and leave. You were thinking that too, right? So, let's be very clear, this is not the

kind of lens that you would use for general day-to-day shooting. This lens is designed for a very specific type of shot, a very close-up but still very high-quality angle, using a lens that's so thin that it can actually get inside of things, which is why you need LEDs on the

end to light those things up. So it gets more ridiculous, we have got it onto a motorized slider to make sure this shot comes out just right. The lens does not have very good in-built stabilization, but get it right and you take something that should not be possible on a phone. I'd

give this 60mm lens a 9 out of 10. So small and such a powerful effect. The Pro lens, more like a 7, just as cool, about five times as unwieldy. A moment of truth for the clean station. It's been 5

days since we put the phone through that toaster thing. Oh my God! So this is the sample taken before the phone was cleaned. That is actually grim! There are so many colonies here. This is the sample taken after cleaning. It's... it's actually still not

great, but it's a hell of a lot better than before cleaning. And then this is the control test, so this is one where we put no swab in, just to check that the experiment works. So there you have it. Not flawless, but a pretty good product.

So, did we just build the most over-engineered phone rig ever? Probably. Does it also look like a Call of Duty killstreak? Definitely. Let me know if you want to see an episode two.

I tested the 14 most OVERKILL Smartphone Gadgets

Let's become the Greatest Tech Community on the Planet 🌍

I'm Arun Maini, I'm a 27 year old Economics graduate whose life's passion is Technology, and I'm on a mission to make the most FUN and USEFUL Tech videos on the Planet! 🙏





Mrwhosetheboss

Introduction and demonstration of various smartphone gadgets to enhance phone functionality.

Testing a $5 phone umbrella that keeps the phone dry but not the user.

Reviewing the Amaran GO, a $29 magnetic phone light with improved brightness and diffusion.

Comparing the Amaran GO's light quality with a standard phone torch, highlighting its softer and more flattering illumination.

Discussing the Amaran GO's features like brightness and color temperature control, but noting its short battery life.

Testing a phone cleaning station that uses UV LEDs to sanitize phones.

Taking a swab of a phone before cleaning to test for bacteria.

Placing the swab on agar jelly to cultivate bacteria growth and visualize the results.

Demonstrating the cleaning station's process and taking a second swab after cleaning.

Reviewing an $80 MagSafe suction cup phone mount, questioning its pricing and discovering it's a much cheaper product on AliExpress.

Exploring the ShiftCam SnapGrip Creator Kit, a modular camera grip system for smartphones.

Introducing the SnapGrip, SnapPod, and SnapLight components of the kit.

Highlighting the SnapGrip's built-in battery and MagSafe charging capabilities.

Discussing the SnapGrip's rotating feature and Bluetooth shutter button, noting a slight delay.

Comparing the SnapLight with the Amaran GO and questioning its practicality.

Assessing the SnapPod tripod and its stability issues, especially with the added weight of the other components.

Improving phone camera capabilities with external storage and accessories.

Introducing the Lexar Professional Go portable SSD, which adds significant storage to a phone.

Demonstrating the difference between standard iPhone footage and ProRes footage captured using the SSD and Blackmagic camera app.

Using the SSD's USB-C hub to connect a microphone and charger to the phone simultaneously.

Testing unique and unusual phone gadgets.

Reviewing the Xgun Light Gun, a Bluetooth controller with a gun mode and recoil feature.

Discussing the Light Gun's accuracy and recoil, but questioning its practicality and comfort.

Testing a gaming console and battery bank attachment for phones, noting its large game library and charging capabilities, but criticizing its speaker quality.

Reviewing a multi-device wireless charger with a rotating mechanism, questioning its design and build quality.

Enhancing phone videography with a phone cage and lenses.

Introducing the Ulanzi VLONE phone cage and its features, including a quick-eject mechanism and MagSafe compatibility.

Demonstrating the impact of a 60mm telephoto lens on phone footage, highlighting the improved zoom and background blur.

Testing a Macro Pro lens with built-in LEDs for extreme close-up shots.

Revealing the results of the phone cleaning station experiment, showing a significant reduction in bacteria after cleaning.