Society is obsessed with the idea of selfies. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, if you change your hair, get a new outfit, or even injure yourself, you don’t have to attempt to describe it to your friends or family. All you do is pull out your phone and take a pictures. Out with your friends and want to show the world that you’re all having a good time? Snap a selfie. Easy.
Admittedly, some people take the whole selfie thing a little too far. This is honestly what I thought whenever I came across the concept of the “selfie stick.” What kind of pictures could I take that would need something like that? It seemed a little silly to me.
When the opportunity presented itself, I decided to check out the Solo Stick Premium and see what the fuss was about. Are these selfie sticks taking things too far, are they useful, or are they just a bit of fun?
The Solo Stick was much smaller than I expected. While it will extend to 36 inches, it will retract and fold down to only 8 inches. This is pretty easy to stick in a purse (or cargo pockets if you’re a guy). It’s slim and easy to hold.
It comes with it’s own micro USB charging cable. The cable that it comes with is rather short. I just plugged mine into the computer and set it on top of the tower. If you’re going to plug it into an outlet adapter (not included), you can easily substitute another cable to get a little more length in order to set it on a table or some other surface.
Even though there’s no display, they still provided indicators to know if your Solo Stick is charging or full. The shutter button will turn red when the stick is charging and will turn off completely once it’s reached full charge. No guesswork involved there. It will fully charge in under 1 hour and last up to 3 days in standby mode or 20 hours of usage. This is up to 5 times longer than other selfie sticks on the market.
The Premium stick has a built in bluetooth shutter button, rather than using cables to connect or even a separate shutter remote. Once charged, it’s ready to be hooked up to your phone. Connecting was incredibly easy. My phone found it instantly and connected smoothly. No additional app downloads required.
Then it’s as easy as putting the phone in the mount, which extends up to 3.35 inches to accommodate even the larger phones such as the iPhone 6+ and the Galaxy Note 4. It was a little more difficult getting my iPhone 6+ in the mount than I expected, but that’s because the mount is spring loaded and I was needing to pull it out to it’s max capacity.
The Solo Stick Premium worked surprisingly well. There was no delay between hitting the shutter button and when my camera took the picture. The shutter button is sensitive enough that it doesn’t jar the stick (and thus the camera) when you press down. I took a few goofy shots of myself. I was able to take a couple full length photos without the use of a mirror and a fun “bird’s eye view” photo as well.
One of the big pushes with selfie sticks is that you can take better group photos without the need to ask for a stranger to take it or for one person to miss the shot. Naturally, a downside to selfie sticks is that it’s fairly difficult to hide that you’re using one, which just looks a little odd. With some careful maneuvering, it is possible to take some selfie shots where it’s a little less obvious.
Even though these sticks are primarily marketed for taking selfies (hence the name), it can be incredibly useful for photographers who want to take a neat shot but cannot get a good angle from physically holding their phone, or they can’t reach the location. The mount holds your phone snuggly enough that you don’t need to worry about it falling out and the Solo Stick comes with a wrist strap, so you needn’t worry about dropping it. So if you want to take a picture without dangling from an edge, or if you want to take an even more difficult photo WHILE dangling from an edge.
If you’re not an avid photographer (either of the selfie variety or otherwise), this product is just a bit of fun, but it can be incredibly useful for those who are always on the quest for another perfect shot. So if you’re wondering which selfie stick on the market to get, I’d recommend the Solo Stick Premium. You can even choose between black, blue, or pink for a bit of self-expression.
Find out more about the Solo Stick here
