GoTech Ion Bluetooth Selfie Stick

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Pros Very portable. Groove prevents telescopic arm from twisting.

Cons Expensive. Doesn't have standard screw mount for attaching other devices. Same arm design and materials that caused minor injury with a similar selfie stick in our testing. Bottom Line The GoTech Ion Bluetooth has a special folding clamp design that makes it the most compact selfie stick we've tested, but its price is also the highest.

By Antonio Villas-Boas

You might be surprised to learn that selfie sticks aren't very portable. Usually it's the awkward, bulky phone clamp, or the cradle's design and width that make it difficult to stow away. That's not the case with the GoTech Ion Bluetooth, which has a unique folding design, making it the most compact selfie stick I've tested. For a whopping $60, however, less portable—and less expensive—sticks start to look a lot more appealing.

The Ion's adjustable, telescopic aluminum arm extends up to 31.5 inches from the bottom of the rubber handle to its tip, which is somewhat short compared with other selfie sticks I've tested. Unlike most models, the phone clamp can be folded over, making it easier to stow away in a bag or your pocket. As a result, the Ion measures just 7.95 by 1.75 inches (LW) when fully collapsed, making it the most portable selfie stick I've tested. Take care when collapsing the telescopic arm, however, as the Ion's design is similar to the Noot Selfie Stick, which gave me an unpleasant cut on my thumb while testing.

Like the Mpow iSnap Pro, you'll find a groove along the extendable arm, which prevents the telescopic sections from twisting under the weight of your smartphone. It comes in all-black or black-and-white color options.

The GoPro-style hinge lets you swivel the phone clamp up to about 220 degrees with a mounted smartphone. It's fairly secure once you tighten the thumb screw on its side, but you can still move the clamp with a bit of force. Unfortunately, you won't be able to mount other devices, since the Ion doesn't use a standard screw mount. And even with the GoPro-like hinge, GoPro mounts are too large to fit on the Ion.

The Ion has a micro USB port on the bottom of the handle, used for charging with an included cable. A large button on the handle lets you pair the stick with your smartphone painlessly, and acts as the camera shutter once paired. I was able to take selfies with an Apple iPhone 6 Plus as quickly as I could press the Ion's shutter button. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the stick to work with a Nokia Lumia Icon running Windows Phone 8.1, and it appears that Windows Phone devices are not compatible in general.

Overall, the Ion is a good, compact selfie stick that's held back by its outrageous $60 price tag. Even the promotional $29.99 price at the time of this writing is a little high. The Urpower Selfie Stick is your best bet out of the Bluetooth-connected selfie sticks I've tested. But if you'd rather go for a quicker plug-and-play experience, you can't go wrong with our Editors' Choice, the Newisland Selfie Stick, for its solid design, and a rearview mirror that let you take high-res selfies using your phone's rear-facing camera. 

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