The best selfie sticks you can buy
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Love them or hate them, selfie sticks aren’t going anywhere. So if you’re ready to join the fray, the best selfie stick is the Anker Bluetooth Selfie Stick. It's stable, fits most smartphones, has excellent battery life, comes with a handy Bluetooth remote shutter, and it's very affordable.
If you’ve said, “I wouldn’t be caught dead using a selfie stick,” you may end up eating your words. Sure, these little extension devices can be annoying when someone swings their smartphone inches from your face while trying to line up a selfie stick photo, cluelessly ignoring everyone else nearby.
But if you can move past the sometimes negative feelings you have about the selfie stick and learn to use one properly, there’s no question a selfie stick does what it promises to do. That's why we've come up with a guide to the best selfie sticks you can buy. Before we get into our picks, here's why you may actually want a selfie stick and some key things to look for.
Why people use selfie sticks
A selfie stick is an improvement on the idea of a monopod, which is a simple stick that connects to a camera. Whereas the monopod helps the photographer hold a camera steady by supporting some of its weight, the selfie stick’s design aims to extend the reach of the human arm to produce a better angle from the camera to the subject. The stick allows you to create an angle to fit more objects in the scene, including the person shooting the photo. When you shoot a photo where you’re also in the photo, it’s called a selfie.
Selfie sticks are especially popular around tourist attractions, where the photographer will stand in front of a landmark and use the selfie stick to record a photo that has both the photographer and the landmark in the same frame, as explained by Quartz.
If you only want to shoot photos of landmarks or of the rest of the family, and you have no desire to appear in the photos you’re shooting, you probably don’t need a selfie stick. But if you’d like to be in the photo, too, a selfie stick works great with your smartphone.
Although there are selfie sticks that can support larger digital cameras, such as DSLRs, the weight of the large camera makes the selfie stick unsteady. You may not want to risk breaking a large camera by placing it at the end of a shaky selfie stick. In that case, you’d be better served placing the large camera on a sturdy tripod and using a remote shutter or using the self-timer feature to give you time to move into the scene.
Things to look for in a great selfie stick
Most selfie sticks will fold down to a small size of 9 to 15 inches in length when not in use. When you’re ready to use it, you’ll extend it like a telescope. The extension can be anywhere from 25 to 40 inches, and some are even longer, as Pocket-Lint discusses. However, the longer the extension, the less sturdy the smartphone will be at the end of the stick.
Another consideration is whether the mount on the end of the selfie stick will accommodate your smartphone camera or digital camera. Some mounts are limited in size, meaning they can’t handle large smartphones. Some selfie sticks designed for larger cameras will contain a tripod screw to ensure a tight connection, as B&H shows.
These devices also vary a little bit based on the method of operation they use. Selfie sticks typically fit in three different operational designs.
- Bluetooth: Selfie sticks enabled with Bluetooth are the most popular. The stick has a shutter button in the handle that connects with your smartphone camera or digital camera over the Bluetooth wireless standard. Press the selfie stick’s shutter button, and it triggers the shutter on the smartphone camera remotely. This design works great because you don’t have to worry whether the ports on your smartphone match up with the selfie stick.
- Headphone jack: With some selfie sticks, you’ll plug a wire near the mount into the headphone jack on the smartphone. This directly connects to the shutter button on the selfie stick, allowing you to remotely trigger the shutter button on the smartphone camera.
- No remote: Older selfie sticks forced you to set the self-timer on your smartphone camera to trigger the shutter on the smartphone. The stick had no remote control capability to trigger the smartphone camera. With the ease of Bluetooth remote connections in newer selfie sticks, buying a selfie stick without a remote capability doesn’t make much sense, as Lifewire mentions.
With all that in mind, we've picked the best selfie sticks you can buy. Read on to see which of our top picks is the one for you.
Although the Anker Bluetooth Selfie Stick is our top pick, for the reasons laid out in the slides below, you should also consider the Fugetek FT-568 Selfie Stick, the GoRad Gear Selfie Stick, the LifeStyle Designs Premium Selfie Stick, and the Kungfuren Selfie Stick.
The best selfie stick overall
Why you'll love it: The Anker Bluetooth Selfie Stick is the best one you can buy with its affordable price, Bluetooth controls, and adjustable size that fits most smartphones.
The popular Anker Bluetooth Selfie Stick offers quite a bit of versatility, both in terms of its length and in which smartphones it’ll support. It can extend 29 inches, folds up to a mere 7.5-inch stick for easy storage, and should be able to hold most smartphones big or small with its adjustable grip.
The selfie stick connects to your phone via Bluetooth, and you can take a picture with a press of the button in the handle. The Anker Selfie Stick has a strong battery life of 20 hours, which the Gadget Vine estimates will allow an impressive 3,000 photos per charge. Some other selfie sticks claim much longer battery life, but most of those claims are greatly exaggerated.
In its review, The Guardian loved the sturdy feel of this selfie stick, as it has very little wobble to it, even when fully extended to its maximum size of 29 inches. The Anker selfie stick grips your smartphone tightly, so you feel safe using it. However, this Anker stick is a little heavy, which may make it tough to hold the unit steady for long periods of time, according to Selfie Pole Reviews.
One Amazon buyer was pleased with the small size of the selfie stick, especially when it's folded down. Another Amazon customer appreciates the quality of Anker products and the way this selfie stick works with the iPhone.
Pros: Folds down to a small size of about 7.5 inches for carrying, works with a large variety of smartphones, offers strong battery life in Bluetooth selfie stick, good build quality from trusted brand name, low price point
Cons: Above average weight may cause pressure on wrists when fully extended
Buy the Anker Bluetooth Selfie Stick on Amazon for $15.99 (originally $49.99)
The best long selfie stick
Why you'll love it: The Fugetek FT-568 Selfie Stick provides support for both smartphone cameras and some larger digital cameras, plus it extends to 49 inches in length.
If you want a selfie stick that can handle multiple types of cameras, your options are limited. But one model that can handle both smartphone cameras and some large digital cameras is the Fugetek FT-568 Selfie Stick.
This model extends all the way to 49 inches in length, which seems almost too good to be true. As a trade off to reach the 49-inch length, the Fugetek FT-568 is heavier than most selfie sticks.
The company claims you can use this stick with DSLR cameras. However, Selfie Pole Reviews says the mount doesn’t feel steady when using it with a large DSLR camera, which may cause you to think twice about using this selfie stick with a DSLR and risk dropping your expensive camera.
One Amazon buyer agrees that the Fugetek Selfie Stick isn’t sturdy enough to use with a DSLR camera as advertised, but it still is a great tool for shooting photos with a smartphone camera over a long selfie stick length.
The Magical Selfie Stick review loves almost everything about the FT-568, including its solid rubber grip, and Lifewire highlights the durability of this selfie stick.
Another Amazon reviewer likes how easy it is to make the Bluetooth connection between the smartphone camera and the Fugetek stick.
Pros: Offers extension out to 49 inches, will work with all kinds of digital cameras and smartphone cameras, sturdy rubber hand grip works great, easy to make Bluetooth connection, good durability in a selfie stick
Cons: Doesn’t feel sturdy with large digital cameras attached, heavier than most selfie sticks
Buy the Fugetek FT-568 Selfie Stick on Amazon for $16.95 (originally $45.99)
The best waterproof selfie stick
Why you'll love it: GoPro users looking to pick up a selfie stick that’ll work around water will appreciate the versatile, waterproof GoRad Gear Selfie Stick.
If you’d love to shoot selfies during action photography sessions around water, you need a waterproof selfie stick and a waterproof camera. The GoRad Gear Selfie Stick is the answer, as it works with GoPro cameras and is tough enough to handle whatever you throw at it.
The GoRad stick extends up to 40 inches in length to help you capture a lot of the action in the scene. Because of its anodized aluminum construction, this selfie stick remains lightweight and tough.
The stabilization the GoRad Gear provides is an impressive feature, according to Magical Selfie Stick's review. The stick’s strong twist and lock system works great for providing additional stability, a Theme Country's review points out.
One Amazon buyer was pleased with the customer service level provided, as well as the sturdy mount on the GoRad Gear.
However, a few Amazon reviewers say the thumbscrew on the selfie stick comes loose too easily, causing problems with having their GoPro cameras fall.
Pros: Works great around water with GoPro cameras, twist and lock system holds the selfie stick’s position properly, extends to a 40-inch length, selfie stick is lightweight and tough with anodized aluminum materials
Cons: Some problems with screws popping loose, safe to use underwater but may hold water
Buy the GoRad Gear Selfie Stick on Amazon for $29.85 (originally $49.95)
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