Xiletu XS-20 mini tripod review: pocket baby with a load of up to 2.5 kg

I will share my per­son­al expe­ri­ence using the XILETU pock­et pho­to tri­pod. The XS-20 mod­el proved to be reli­able in long-term oper­a­tion and com­fort­able on trips and out­ings. Some­times you don’t need any bulky pho­to tri­pod, but some­times this baby with a swiv­el head is enough. And the qual­i­ty turned out to be envi­able — oth­er Chi­nese tripods did not last as long as XILETU.

Tri­pod XILETU XS-20

This and oth­er sim­i­lar mini tripods can be viewed in the selec­tion. There are com­plete­ly alu­minum options (with a load of 4..6 kg). A good option for trav­el, or for mobile pho­tog­ra­phy.

Char­ac­ter­is­tics:

Brand: XILETU
Mod­el: XS-20
Thread: 1/4″
Per­mis­si­ble load: 2.5kg
Max Height: 14cm
Fold­ed length: 20cm
Clamped smart­phone size in XJ‑A: 65…90mm.

The appear­ance of the cab­i­net is shown below. An ordi­nary tri­pod for mount­ing a pho­to or video cam­era on a sur­face. The ball head will help fix the cam­era angle.

An inter­est­ing point is that the orig­i­nal pack­ag­ing con­tains the con­tact infor­ma­tion of the XILETU com­pa­ny (mail, phone, address, web­site).

A set of an XS-20 tri­pod, a ball head is avail­able at the link, and you can also pur­chase an addi­tion­al 1/4″ exten­sion cable or an XJ‑A smart­phone hold­er.

The XJ‑A hold­er is inter­est­ing in that it has two 1/4″ thread­ed con­nec­tions, which makes it pos­si­ble not only to install in var­i­ous ways, but also to dock addi­tion­al equip­ment, for exam­ple, to install an exter­nal direc­tion­al micro­phone for a smart­phone. The width of the clamped smart­phone is from 65 to 90mm.

Inside the hold­er is past­ed over with soft mate­r­i­al.

Brand­ed ball head XILETU. It is mount­ed on a 1/4″ mount on a tri­pod, and allows not only to rotate, but also to fix the smart­phone with an incli­na­tion. A wing screw is used for fix­a­tion.

All work­ing and pow­er parts of the head struc­ture are made of met­al (alu­minum), which is notice­ably bet­ter than plas­tic Chi­nese coun­ter­parts.

The tri­pod folds out eas­i­ly, prefer­ably on a flat sur­face.

Can be used on its own (1/4″) or as a base for an exten­sion. An exten­der from XILETU or a reg­u­lar 1/4″ self­ie stick can serve as an exten­sion.

When fold­ed, the tri­pod fits into a pock­et. The mass is slight­ly more than a bar of choco­late (140g).

The design is rein­forced, with rub­ber pads on the racks.

Tri­pod XS-20 com­plete with hold­er XJ‑A.

It is prefer­able to use a ball head in the com­po­si­tion — this gives not only panoram­ic rota­tion, but also the abil­i­ty to fix the smart­phone at an angle.

I use a sim­i­lar tri­pod for sub­ject shoot­ing, for shoot­ing out­doors.

Before XILETU, I had an aux­il­iary uni­ver­sal mini tri­pod for the phone, a very sim­ple mod­el, but alu­minum, and with a non-remov­able swiv­el head.

The design is more or less work­ing, but not with­out flaws.

The retractable legs of the uni­ver­sal ver­sion are not fixed.

If you choose between XILETU for $8 and a uni­ver­sal no-name for $2, then it is bet­ter to pay extra and take a nor­mal XILETU, maybe even a more expen­sive mod­el.

If we talk about smart­phones, then almost any mod­el is installed except for the most-most MAX (width no more than 90 mm).

It is con­ve­nient to adjust the tilt, you can choose the height and focal length to the object.

If you use a smart­phone for self­ies, then it makes sense to sep­a­rate­ly buy a blue­tooth remote con­trol.

There is always a use for a mini tri­pod, even if you already have a large pro­fes­sion­al tri­pod.

Tri­pod XS-20 — This is a good option for a vaca­tion. Last time he “worked” for all the mon­ey spent on him. If you choose a tri­pod oth­er than XILETU, make sure that the mech­a­nisms are met­al, plas­tic tilt heads and plas­tic 1/4″ screws do not last long.