For those who had requested me per week in the past to suggest a thinner different to PopSockets’ magnetic cellphone grips, I might have informed you to purchase the OhSnap Snap Grip 5. Ask me now and I’ll redirect you proper again to the corporate that accidentally invented the phone grip in 2012 when attempting to give you a greater approach to wrangle Apple EarPods. PopSockets’ new Low-Professional is its slimmest cellphone grip but, and it’s not solely thinner than OhSnap’s newest, it’s additionally extra purposeful and extra comfy to carry.
Out there beginning right now solely via Apple in 4 colours (it is going to be accessible from PopSockets’ online store and different retailers beginning on July twenty ninth), the $39.99 Low-Professional Grip is launching on the identical worth because the Snap Grip 5. I’ve been a faithful fan of OhSnap’s grips for the previous few years and lately upgraded to the Grip 5, however after testing the PopSockets Low-Professional for only a week, I’m prepared to leap ship.
The final PopSockets grip I used was the Kick-Out Grip and Stand that debuted final 12 months and did a greater job than the OhSnap Grip 4 as a cellphone stand that labored effectively in each portrait and panorama mode. However at 7mm thick when collapsed, I discovered the Kick-Out Grip would sometimes get snagged when slipping my cellphone into my pocket. I’ve by no means had that downside with both the two.5mm-thick Snap Grip 4 or the 3mm-thick Grip 5.
The brand new PopSockets Low-Professional falls someplace between OhSnap’s final two choices at 2.6mm, which the corporate compares to the thickness of a pair of dimes or a toothpick. It’s positively skinny, however you must look extremely near see the peak distinction when evaluating the Low-Professional and Snap Grip 5 facet by facet. For those who had been going by contact alone the distinction in thickness is imperceivable.
Way more noticeable is how the 2 grips really feel between your fingers if you’re holding your cellphone. The Snap Grip 5 carries ahead a design that makes use of a set of interlocking versatile arms that connect the bottom of the grip to an extending disc. It’s a singular strategy that OhSnap has improved and strengthened since The Verge’s Victoria Tune had a Snap 3 Professional break practically three years in the past. However whereas the sturdiness is best, the Snap Grip 5’s versatile arms nonetheless aren’t essentially the most comfy. They’re not painful by any means, however utilizing the Snap Grip 5 has at all times felt to me like I’m sacrificing the consolation of a PopSockets grip for one thing extra svelte.
With the Low-Professional, you get the perfect of each worlds. As an alternative of plastic arms or the standard PopSockets design that contains a collapsing squishy cone, the Low-Professional makes use of what the corporate describes as a “one-piece polymer” enlargement layer connecting a pop-out disc to the grip’s base. It seems like a tube that’s been sliced filled with diamond-shaped holes to assist it collapse compactly, however it’s made out of a squishy materials that makes the Low-Professional really feel softer and extra comfy to carry at any angle. My fingers sometimes get sore throughout extended one-handed doomscrolling periods utilizing the Snap Grip 5, however that hasn’t been a problem with the Low-Professional.
Each grips double as a cellphone stand, however the Low-Professional does it higher. With the Snap Grip 5 you possibly can tuck one fringe of its extending disc right into a notch on the bottom and use it to prop your cellphone up. However it’s restricted to only one angle, and it really works higher together with your cellphone laying sideways than standing up vertically. Surrounding the bottom of the Low-Professional is a hinged steel ring that folds out at any angle, so it really works as a stand in both orientation. The bottom of the Low-Professional is a bit wider than the Snap Grip 5 because of this, however the measurement distinction is negligible.
There’s a motive to nonetheless think about OhSnap’s Snap Grip 5 over PopSockets’ Low-Professional. Each equipment permit your cellphone to stay to steel surfaces, magnetic mounts, and wi-fi chargers with the grips connected, however the magnets on the Snap Grip 5 are stronger than these within the Low-Professional. The Snap Grip 5 at all times remained securely connected to the again of my iPhone 16 Professional when eradicating it from a magnetic wi-fi charging stand, however the Low-Professional persistently remained behind caught to the stand.
For those who repeatedly mount your cellphone to magnetic equipment like this, resembling counting on a automobile mount to make use of your cellphone as a GPS system, there’s an excellent likelihood the Low-Professional may get steadily left behind and forgotten. For those who don’t, then PopSockets’ new Low-Professional Grip is a worthy different. It’s not the thinnest grip ever created, however PopSockets has improved on OhSnap’s design in just a few vital areas that make a grip a tempting accent, even in case you’re attempting to maintain your cellphone as skinny as potential.
Pictures by Andrew Liszewski / The Verge