Anyone that knows me personally or has followed me for a long time would know I love technology and getting my hands on what’s new. When I saw the OhSnap! phone grip and it’s promises, I was genuinely excited. I wasn’t that interested in their wireless charger, but I opted for it anyway so I could see how well they lived up to the promises. The Grip is a 3mm thin circle you stick to the back of your phone. It rotates, has an elastic slot for your finger, snaps to form a kickstand, is magnetic, and still works with wireless chargers. The OhSnap! wireless charger promises 15W of wireless charging power that magnetically snaps into the OhSnap! Grip to offer a seamless charging experience. These are bold promises that got me excited. And after owning both of these products, I really wanted to love them. My frustrations over a few days of trial and error has left me wanting my money back, but the company is completely unresponsive.

OhSnap! Grip

The exciting product here is the OhSnap! Grip. Well, it was the exciting product until it failed to deliver on the promise I cared about most: wireless charging. For those of you unfamiliar, you can’t wirelessly charge through metal. That’s why most phones with wireless charging are made of plastic or glass instead of metal. This is also why the new Pixel 5 has a metal back, but has a hole cut out around the wireless charging hardware (I bet you didn’t know that!).

In order for the OhSnap! Grip to be magnetic, it must be made of metal, and part of it is. The bottom most later is made of a thin metal ring with 3M adhesive on one side. On top of that is a thin plastic (or metal, depending which Grip you purchase) ring that completes the rest of the design and features. The directions indicate to install the Grip over the center of your phone’s back and to use the Apple logo as a guide for an iPhone — the Apple logo is the center of an iPhone. However, I have a Samsung Note 20 and there is no graphic that indicates the center. Also, the center isn’t necessarily where the charging coil is located in a phone. For instance, the Note 20 is slightly offset to one side in order to make room for the S-Pen. Needless to say, it took me several trials with an error almost each time finding the right spot. In fact, I had completely worn off the adhesive by the time I found the right spot that worked with my wireless charger. It also didn’t help that my 1.5mm thin case on my phone (I measured with a micrometer) was still too thick to work with my wireless charger with the OhSnap! grip installed. This meant I would have to use my phone without a case or use a hole saw bit to cut a 2.5in hole in the back of my phone case - which I was prepared to do until the adhesive completely wore out.

How do you know if the OhSnap! Grip is in the wrong location for wireless charging? Your phone will either refuse to wireless charge because of the Grip blocking the wireless charging coil or it will start to wireless charge, then a pop-up message will say “wireless charging has paused” and charging will stop. The latter may repeat over and over — as in it may start charging briefly again after pausing, then pause again, and repeat. DO NOT let this process repeat as it can generate unnecessary heat and damage to your battery. It can also prevent the screen and rest of the phone from going to sleep, which can cause many more problems.

Other than wireless charging?

If you don’t care about wireless charging, the OhSnap! Grip isn’t all that terrible. It works as promised. It’s extremely thin and the tapered edges make it comfortable in the pocket. The magnetic side is very strong too, holding my Note 20 to my fridge with ease. It rotates as promised, but it can be a little stiff and requires effort. This is probably better than a loose rotation as it can affect the kickstand or the angle you’re viewing it at. Speaking of the kickstand, it works as advertised, but I worried about it’s durability. The kickstand is literally a thin, plastic tab over the piece your finger slides through. You insert the plastic tab into a slot in another plastic tab under the area your finger goes over. It’s all so thin and small that I worry about it cracking after repeated use.

Comfort is an entirely different story. The grip is mostly plastic (or metal if you bought the metal version). You slide your finger between two plastic pieces where the top end is held by very tight elastic. The elastic offers very little stretch, which leaves your finger feeling like circulation is being cut off after a few minutes. The plastic pieces have nothing soft about them either, making them feel like they’re digging into your finger. I suppose the elastic might loosen up after a while, but I haven’t had the luxury to test that yet. Good thing they included a kickstand because I couldn’t see myself holding my phone with this grip for long periods of time comfortably.

OhSnap! Wireless Charger

There’s not a lot to be said about any wireless charger and this one isn’t that much more special than any other. You put your phone on a wireless charger and it charges. It should be this simple and the OhSnap! Wireless Charger works like this as well. The only difference is that this wireless charger magnetically snaps to the OhSnap! Grip. Unfortunately, the Grip is too stiff to automatically align with the wireless charger, so you should still pay attention to how the 2 are aligned before snapping them together. This only improves the speed and efficiency of the charge because it closes the gap between the 2.

Unfortunately, the OhSnap! Wireless Charger does not appear to support Samsung’s Extended Profiles for wireless charging. I’m mixed on Samsung’s specific charging profiles because I feel like it’s an attempt at DRM (digital right’s management) for wireless charging, but Samsung claims it improves safety in their hardware. Regardless what this is, it means that Samsung phones cannot wirelessly charge at the fastest speeds this charger supports. The OhSnap! Wireless Charger advertises 15W of power, but without support for Samsung’s Extended Profiles, it’s more like 5W of charging power. You can get a 5W wireless charger for a fraction of the cost of OhSnap!’s charger.

Returning and closing remarks

If you browse OhSnap!’s website, one of the dominant things advertised is how easy is it to return their product. Sadly, this is so far from the truth that you’d think Donald Trump was running this company. Support has been taken over by a useless chat bot that re-iterates FAQ information with little to no real help. A real person doesn’t seem to exist in this company. The return page reveals an email address for support which you email to request a return. Doing so does generate an automated response, but nearly a week later and no one has responded to actually respond to my request for return.

Let’s be rational looking at this company. They’re a new company which started on Kickstarter. This is their second Grip product, which was also launched on Kickstarter, and they have a whole ecosystem surrounding it. They launched their product for purchase on their website before they were able to fulfill their Kickstarter orders. Comments on their Facebook page (at least), showed angry Kickstarter customers who still hadn’t received their order months after their promised delivery (I received mine a month and a half after I ordered it and that was still before other Kickstarter backers). OhSnap! also made a statement on their Kickstarter page indicating they were having issues with their shipping company on delivering orders. And I should be clear that I made purchase on their website, not Kickstarter and received mine before many Kickstarter backers.

If I had to guess what’s going on with this company, it would be that they were too ambitious and grew too quickly. They should have left their website as a “coming soon” advertisement until they could fulfill their Kickstarter backers, then take feedback from those customers to refine the product before a full, public launch. That didn’t happen. Instead, they tried to fulfill orders from public and Kickstarters simultaneously, became overwhelmed with support inquiries and lack an adequate staff to handle the demand.

Dear OhSnap!

OhSnap! team, if you are reading this, please learn from your mistakes and take the feedback I have shared here to heart. I really wanted to love these products, but I couldn’t. You should have treated the Kickstarter as a beta test and taken feedback before a full launch. Follow up each purchase with a carefully directed survey asking about the user experience and their specific devices. Use this survey and feedback to further enhance the product before a full launch. Then fire additional support staff to handle the inquiries you’re receiving to make for a better customer experience. You should also limit the OhSnap! Grip to phones you have tested with the wireless charging, or at least which your Kickstarters are using with success, and offer some form of template for proper placement. If this means using a folding cardboard cutout that molds to your phone with a hole that fits the Grip, then so be it. Ideally, it should be a plastic mold similar to what many screen protectors now include. Proper placement matters for wireless charging to work. Additionally, the package should include a strap of some sort to temporarily hold the Grip to your phone to test compatibility before sticking it to a phone or case. The difficulty I had was that my wireless charger is in the car and stands vertically. Therefore, gravity worked against me in trying to test it before sticking it.

To everyone else

The OhSnap! Grip isn’t a terrible product, but it isn’t as perfect as they claim it to be either. IF you don’t need wireless charging and have thin fingers, you could very well love this phone grip. Other than the comfort of my fingers, this really is better than a Pop Socket. But expect a tight grip around your finger and the discomfort of the plastic pressing against it to be your biggest complaint. If you care about wireless charging, I hope you don’t use a phone case and know exactly where the wireless charging hardware is located before you peel away the paper protecting the adhesive. It hold very strongly and it only takes a couple of times removing it to wear off the strength of the adhesive. I used masking tape to temporarily attach mine after a few tries, tested it against my wireless charger, then used a pencil to trace around the Grip before sticking it. If you choose buy one, all I can say is good luck and I hope you don’t need to reach support.