Oppo just joined the growing list of companies circling DJI’s Osmo Pocket territory. During the Q&A session at the Find X9 Ultra launch, Oppo’s Product Manager for the Find Series, Schofield Lu, confirmed that the company is exploring its own handheld gimbal camera, according to Digital Camera World.
There’s no design, no specs, and no launch window yet. But the confirmation alone shifts the competitive picture in a category DJI has owned for years.
What Oppo actually said
Lu’s confirmation came tied to Oppo’s newest flagship phone reveal. The Find X9 Ultra ships with a Hasselblad-partnered five-camera system, a 200MP main sensor, and a 200MP 3x telephoto that outspecs most phones currently on the market. That’s the pedigree Oppo is bringing to a potential gimbal camera.
What Oppo didn’t share is almost everything else. No timeline, no sensor details, no price range, no prototype images. This is a statement of intent, not a product reveal. Rivals Insta360, Vivo, and Honor have all moved further down the development path than Oppo.
The DJI Osmo Pocket 4 Oppo is chasing
DJI launched the Osmo Pocket 4 on April 16, 2026 at $499 globally. The Creator Combo runs between $649 and $749 depending on configuration. The new model packs a 1-inch CMOS sensor, 4K recording at 240fps, a 6K/30fps mode, 14 stops of dynamic range, and 10-bit D-Log color.
Storage jumped to 107GB built in with 800MB/s transfer speeds. Battery runs up to 240 minutes at 1080p/24fps. The whole package weighs 4.1 oz, a 35% cut from the Pocket 3’s 6.3 oz. The 3-axis mechanical gimbal stays, along with ActiveTrack 7.0 and DJI’s full mic ecosystem.
Here’s the catch that matters for American buyers. The Osmo Pocket 4 cannot be sold in the United States. DJI and other foreign-made drone manufacturers got added to the FCC Covered List on December 22, 2025, following the FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act. That addition blocks new FCC equipment authorizations for covered models, which means no official US retail for the Pocket 4.
The rest of the field
Insta360 is the closest actual threat. The company previewed its Luna series at NAB 2026 and confirmed two models: the single-lens Luna Pro and the dual-lens Luna Ultra, both co-engineered with Leica.
The Luna Ultra packs a 1-inch main sensor, a dedicated 1/1.3-inch telephoto sensor, an f/1.8 aperture, 14 stops of dynamic range, 10-bit iLog, and a detachable gimbal head. Launch is tipped for May 15, 2026 with pricing expected between $499 and $799 depending on variant.
Honor took a different approach entirely. The company showed its Robot gimbal concept at MWC 2026, which builds a miniature gimbal directly into a phone. No launch commitment yet, but Honor has suggested it could reach market eventually.
Vivo rounds out the pile. The company has rumors of a gimbal camera project in the pipeline, which fits with its X300 Ultra flagship phone that already uses gimbal OIS on the main camera sensor.
DroneXL’s Take
Here’s what nobody is saying out loud. Oppo, Vivo, Insta360, and Honor are not suddenly brilliant product companies that woke up and realized pocket gimbals were interesting. They’re piling into this category because DJI’s US market access got surgically cut off by the FCC Covered List on December 22, 2025. That’s the market-making event, not any of these announcements.
The DJI Osmo Pocket 4 is the best pocket gimbal camera on the planet by a wide margin, and it ships at $499. The Insta360 Luna Ultra with Leica branding is going to start somewhere in the $699 to $799 range based on leaks. Oppo, assuming it ships anything in the next 18 months, will almost certainly price above DJI too. The best product in the category is cheaper than any of its American-market replacements will be.
That’s the part that should sting for anyone who thought banning DJI hardware would produce better products. It produces more products, at higher prices, from companies with less experience in gimbal stabilization engineering.
Oppo has legitimate camera company credentials through its Hasselblad partnership. The Find X9 Ultra’s Lumo imaging engine is serious world-class smartphone photography work. None of that matters until there’s a shipping product. For now, Oppo’s gimbal camera is a press soundbite at a phone launch, and nothing more.
Photo credit: Ai Generated Image, DJI, Honor, Quadro_news.
