Ohsnap Snap Grip 5 Review: Not Quite the Perfect Phone Friend

If you’re anything like me, you hold your phone for more hours per day than you’d care to admit. That’s why I’m always on the lookout for a great grip, something that lets me steady the screen with a couple fingers instead of constantly engaging the claw.

That’s the Snap Grip 5 in a nutshell. It’s a super-slim MagSafe disc with a pop-out grip (think: PopSocket, but thinner), and because it has magnets on both sides, you can attach your phone to things like the refrigerator, gym equipment, car mounts, and so on.

It’s also a phone stand: the little pop-out circle can angle in on one side to prop the screen up for hands-free viewing.

Clever, right? It is, but I’m not sold.

I tested the Snap Grip 5 with my iPhone 17. It’s compatible with any MagSafe-equipped model (which is most of them), but also comes with an adapter kit for Android phones, Kindles, and phone cases that lack magnets.

Ohsnap touts the fact that the 3mm grip is actually thinner than the iPhone’s camera-lens bump, which is true and awesome: It adds no bulk to your pocket and actually enables the phone to sit flat on its backside; no more bump-wobble.

The phone-side magnets are strong; the Grip 5 isn’t coming off unless you pry it with a couple fingernails. That’s a nice change over the Snap Luxe 4 it replaced; that one required an adhesive disc and wasn’t coming off, period, unless you removed the latter.

However, while the Luxe 4 supported pass-through charging, meaning you could drop your phone onto just about any MagSafe charger, the Grip 5 does not. Or, at least, the messaging is confusing: Ohsnap’s site says, “We recommend popping the grip off temporarily to wireless charge,” but in other places notes that it “gets along with every MagSafe mount, charger and stand…”

I asked a company rep for clarification and got the same conflicting answer: “The Snap Grip is compatible with MagSafe chargers and mounts, but Ohsnap recommends removing the Grip temporarily when wirelessly charging directly from a MagSafe charger.” If it’s compatible, why does it need to be removed?

This is a borderline dealbreaker for me; I don’t want the extra steps of having to remove the grip before charging at night and then remembering to put it back on in the morning. The thing is, it seemed to work just fine with my Anker charging stand, and I didn’t notice any excessive heat when I pulled it off. It’s possible, though, that heat is an issue with some wireless chargers, and that might be the reason Ohsnap warns against it.

As a grip, it’s quite comfortable to use with two fingers, as shown above. Ohsnap says you can also slide a single finger through the springy plastic hinge that holds the disc up, but I found this awkward and uncomfortable.

That disc becomes a phone stand when you lock it into the base at an angle, but while this works well for landscape viewing, it’s not ideal for portrait; the viewing angle is pretty shallow, maybe all of 20 degrees. That’s a bummer, because if you want to read or swipe through TikTok videos, you still have to lean over the phone a bit.

If portrait viewing is important to you, consider the Snap Grip Stand, which features a fold-out ring for a more versatile hands-free experience: adjustable viewing angle, a tripod mode, etc. But it maintains the Snap Grip 5’s razor-thin design and pop-out grip.

Here’s my other big struggle: The Snap Grip 5 sells for $40, which feels high for what is basically a thin piece of plastic. Yes, it has embedded magnets and that specially engineered (and surprisingly durable) plastic hinge. But the whole thing has a cheap feel that makes the price tag hard to swallow. (The packaging is fancier than the product.) Meanwhile, the aforementioned Snap Grip Stand runs $50.

To me this feels like a $20 accessory, maybe $25 — especially considering the unsupported pass-through charging, which was one of the more venerable features of its predecessor. I like the Snap Grip 5, I just don’t like it $40’ worth.

Ohsnap Snap Grip 5

PROS:

• Very thin
• Adds a comfortable two-finger grip
• Doubles as a phone stand
• Strong magnets
• Available in lots of colors

CONS:

• Expensive for what it is
• Not recommended for pass-through charging
• Stand isn’t good for portrait orientation

💡 VERDICT: This admirably thin grip has a couple nifty tricks up its sleeve, but its price and limitations get in the way of a full-throated recommendation.