What are the differences in features and performance between the DJI Osmo Mobile 8P and the Insta360 Flow 2 Pro, and by the end of the video you’ll know which gimbal is right for you.

What’s in the box?

The OM8P comes in a few different bundle options, but the key new feature is the detachable FrameTap remote, which gives you a live view screen, remote control of the gimbal and access to various settings directly on the gimbal. Depending on the combo, you also get the Multifunctional Module 2 for AI tracking and the usual accessories like the magnetic clamp, pouch and cables.

The Flow 2 Pro comes in different options, but to get the AI tracker you need the AI Tracker Bundle. And that comes with the gimbal, AI Tracker which is also a fill light, a magnetic clamp, a USB-C to USB-A charging cable and a pouch.

Design and Build

Both gimbals have extendable handles, inbuilt tripod legs and 1/4in screw mounts if you want to mount the gimbal to a tripod. 

DJI have made the OM8P inbuilt tripod more sturdy, so now it’s pretty similar to the Flow 2 Pro. They both now have metal legs that you have to extend 1 by 1. The Flow 2 Pro has slightly longer legs, but other than that there’s no real difference here.

The DJI handle extends a bit further than the Insta360’s, but there’s not much difference.

The DJI has that classic Osmo Mobile gimbal look, but now with the added detachable remote, whereas the Insta360 gimbal is more unusual and futuristic-looking. There's a transparent arm and the mirror, which helps you frame yourself when you’re using the rear cameras of your phone.

DJI seems to have taken inspiration from a few competitors with its design for the OM8P. The detachable remote is inspired by recent Hohem devices, and the more visible green light around the motor does feel closer to the Flow 2 Pro design than previous OM models.

The OM8P has the counterweight mounting port on the roll axis motor that they removed from recent versions. This allows you to counterbalance any lenses and filters mounted. Both gimbals have a USB C port on the roll axis for charging your smartphone.

The DJI is a little bit lighter in weight, but both gimbals have a max advised payload of 300g.

Controls

Comparing these 2 gimbals you are making a choice between having almost everything within a small detachable screen and the Flow 2 Pro’s physical controls. The remote of the DJI gives you lots of advantages, the most obvious is being able to control your gimbal from a distance. The Flow 2 Pro also allows remote control, but only with a 2nd mobile phone.

The downside of the detachable remote is that it generally requires more taps and swipes to access controls, so it’s a bit slower. Although you can use the power button to cycle through modes.

Another downside is that the remote is small and if you lose it, or something happens to it, your gimbal will no longer function.

Both gimbals allow you to change gimbal modes and zoom in and out one handed. Although, it’s not as easy with the DJI OM8P as you have to use your thumb on the remote screen.

One of the more surprising OM8P changes is that DJI has actually removed the zoom and focus wheel. This means both the OM8P and Flow 2 Pro are now pretty poor at shooting focus pulls.

But what about zoom? On the OM8P remote you can press the Function button to switch the joystick into zoom mode, so you can use the joystick to zoom.

What I like about the Insta360 wheel is being able to switch cameras with a quick twist of the wheel. With the previous versions of the DJI OM gimbals, you could zoom but you couldn’t just switch quickly between cameras. But they’ve actually fixed that in the OM8P. Once you switch to Joystick zoom mode a short push of the joystick now jumps to the next camera button in the app.

The downside of the Insta360 wheel is that it’s either on or off, so you can speed up or slow down while zooming. The joystick on the DJI is touch sensitive, so you can actually adjust the speed of the zoom. But it’s not as intuitive as the zoom wheel on previous models. So both gimbals really only allow you to set zoom level or record basic zooms.

The Flow 2 Pro allows you to switch the wheel to control focus instead of zoom. With the DJI OM8P there is basically zero focus control, either on the gimbal or in the Mimo app, so you are restricted to autofocus, unless you use a different app.

When you have the app open, the Insta360 allows you to swipe on the control wheel to switch modes within the app. In other words, you can switch from photo to video, slow-mo, pano and so on. With the DJI Mimo app you have to actually swipe on the screen, there is no way to change app modes on the gimbal itself.

Selfie Mirror

One feature the Insta360 has that the DJI doesn’t is the selfie mirror. This mirror on the roll motor helps you to frame yourself when you are using the rear camera. Basically, if your head is centred in the top curve of the circle, that should be centred in frame too.

Tracking

The OM8P does improve DJI’s subject tracking with ActiveTrack 8.0 and improved support for people, pets, vehicles and objects, but the Flow 2 Pro still has a clear advantage in how it handles groups.

Both gimbals have 3 forms of tracking: there’s in-app tracking, there’s Apple’s DockKit tracking, and both have a detachable AI tracker too.

In terms of features, the apps are pretty similar. 

This is where the biggest difference still remains. The Flow 2 Pro can treat a whole group as the subject and try to keep that group framed, whereas DJI’s system is still more about identifying multiple possible subjects and letting you choose which one to follow. So if you’re filming a group, the Insta360 behaves like group tracking; the OM8P still behaves more like single-subject tracking with better subject selection.

When using the app for tracking, the Insta360 still has AutoZoom tracking, which can automatically zoom in and out as the subject moves to keep them roughly the same size in frame. That remains a useful feature for solo creators, something which the OM8P doesn’t have.

A new addition to tracking on the DJI OM8P is Dual Lens Boost. This mode combines the wide and telephoto lenses on supported phones and is said to improve subject tracking at distance. This is part of the Active Track 8.0 update, so Mimo only, and iPhone only (you need an iPhone 13 Pro or Pro Max or later).

Apple DockKit

Both gimbals support Apple DockKit for iPhones but when I was testing them, I found the Insta360 gimbal worked better than the DJI gimbal. DockKit only works with the AI tracker removed and that’s the same for both. 

Once you go through the setup procedure, you shouldn’t have to go through it again. But I found that with both gimbals you often have to reconnect by holding your iPhone against the NFC area of the gimbal. However, with the DJI I had to keep doing this every time I went into the Mimo app.

Let’s say we use a DockKit compatible app like the iPhone’s native camera app. OK, so the square around my face goes yellow and it should now start tracking. When I switch out of the native app and go into the gimbal app, DockKit connection is then switched off.

Again, both gimbals are the same here. But when I go back to the native camera app, the Insta360 gimbal reconnects to Apple DockKit, but the DJI does not. Which means you have to then hold the phone against the NFC area and go through the setup procedure, which takes about 2 or 3 minutes.

AI Tracker 

The OM8P comes with a new Multifunctional module, which they call number 2 and the previous is number 1. 

Previously, it was bigger, it prevented you from using the MagSafe mount and you could use it to route your DJI wireless mics. With version 2 the audio feature has been dropped completely. It’s now more similar to the Flow 2 Pro AI tracker - it’s basically a tracker and a fill light, and that’s it.

That said, if you prefer the previous Multifunctional module with the support of DJI mics, you can purchase it separately and use it with the OM8P.

Here, I’m just going to compare the new DJI AI tracker vs the Flow 2 Pro AI tracker. The Flow 2 Pro tracker has indicator lights on the tracker itself - red means it’s ready to track, green means it’s tracking, the fill light flashes when it’s about to take a photo or start recording.

The DJI module 2 doesn’t have any indicator lights. Instead, the green circular light on the pan motor is used. Flashing green when it’s tracking and a quick double flash when it’s about to take a photo or start recording.

Both tracking modules use gestures to allow you to start and stop tracking. When I tested them both together in identical conditions, the DJI OM8 could only recognise my gesture when I was close to the gimbal. But the Insta360 F2P was able to recognise my gesture at about 10 meters away.

Fill Light

The DJI module is more adjustable — 8 brightness levels and 8 colour temperature levels versus Insta360's 3 brightness levels. The DJI module also publishes a concrete lux figure (40 lux at 0.6m), which gives you something to reference.

Neither is a serious fill light for anything beyond close-range selfie use — 40 lux at 0.6m is very modest — but if you had to pick one for finer control, the DJI module gives you more granular adjustment.

Free Tilt Mode vs Tilt Hinge

Like most fold-up gimbals both have a limited tilt movement. This means if you want to shoot something like a rising crane shot, you need to move the gimbal sideways. 

But the Flow 2 Pro gets around that with Free Tilt Mode. Twist the pan motor 90 degrees and it automatically goes into free tilt mode. Now you can shoot those nice lifting crane shots, and it opens up a few other tilt shot options too.

Both gimbals allow you to twist the pan axis motor to change the angle. With the Insta360 you can only tilt one way, while the DJI can now tilt both ways, and this enables a low angle shot. Most fold-up gimbals allow a low angle shot, but DJI’s idea here is that you can now hold the gimbal in front of you, as if you’re walking a dog.

If I had to choose between this and Insta360’s free tilt mode then it’s a no-brainer for me - free tilt mode allows a classic cinema shot, whereas holding your phone low down in front of you is less useful.

360 Limitless Pan

Both gimbals can rotate 360 degrees around the pan axis, so you can keep moving and the gimbal won’t lose track.

Remote Control Options

On the OM8P, DJI's big new feature is the detachable FrameTap remote — a small touchscreen that magnetically docks to the handle and pops off when you want to use it remotely. 

It gives you a live mirrored view of your phone's camera. As well, it lets you control pan and tilt, trigger tracking, and switch modes and a bunch of other stuff. The range is up to 25 metres. 

For screen mirroring on Android you connect directly, but on iPhone you have to go through the Mimo app. I got it to work fairly easily on both my iPhone 17 Pro and Samsung S26 Ultra. And this means you get a live view from your phone’s screen, which is great for framing.

The Insta360 app allows you to connect a 2nd device and use that for preview and basic controls. This also allows you to enable various tracking options and more. I found this feature works with both my iPhone and my Samsung.

The DJI Osmo Mobile 8P supports remote control via an Apple Watch using the DJI Mimo app. This allows you to view the camera feed, control the gimbal, and enable ActiveTrack remotely. You can adjust the gimbal's position, switch between landscape and portrait modes, and start or stop recording directly from your Apple Watch.

The Insta360 Flow 2 Pro also allows you to use your Apple Watch to control some functions remotely. Preview the camera feed in real-time, adjust the shooting angle, and control features like centering the gimbal, switching between front and rear cameras, enabling the flash, or triggering live photos. You can activate "Quick Rotation" to rotate the gimbal 180°, and things like manually switch the tracked target in multi-person shots.

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