I spent $40 renting a Samsung phone to try to get good concert pics of Seventeen’s Joshua Hong

• I got tickets to the opening leg of Seventeen’s tour in South Korea.
• I’m a big fan of Joshua Hong, one of the vocalists. It seemed like a golden opportunity for fancams.
• I heard about Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra phone rentals and had to give it a shot. Here’s how it went.

If you’ve seen a concert of any kind, be it Taylor Swift or BTS, you’re no stranger to the sea of phones recording videos of the performers.

The desire to get a good snap for social media is particularly strong at K-pop concerts, where fans strain to get “fancams” of their favorite boy from their seats.

I secured tickets to South Korea’s opening leg of the top K-pop band Seventeen’s world tour last month. My seat was five floors up from the stage, so I needed a plan.

My friends told me to get a new phone for the concert. I did the next best thing.

I told anyone who would listen that securing tickets to the Seventeen concert at the Asiad Stadium in Incheon would be the day I finally get a decent fancam of my favorite Seventeen band member, Joshua Hong.

I don’t have the worst phone: It’s an iPhone 16 I bought this year as an upgrade from the iPhone 13. While it serves its purpose for IG fit checks and regular social media posts, it doesn’t have a great mega zoom lens.

Buy a new phone, one of my friends suggested. Attach a binocular lens from Temu to the back of your phone camera, another said.

The most viable and least unhinged solution to my fancam woes was a suggestion from my colleague at Business Insider’s Singapore bureau, who reported on phone rentals for K-pop concerts in May.

I reserved a one-day slot for a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra at Snapshoot, a phone rental company.

The bill came to $39.71. Longer rental periods up to three days are also available, which is great for fans who secure tickets for multiple concert dates.

Pickup was fuss-free and foreigner-friendly.

The night before the concert, Snapshoot staff texted me the procedure for pickup at a café in Seoul’s Hongdae district.

I showed up at 10:30 a.m. and got in line behind four women, all in full concert-goer gear. We flashed our order receipts and were handed a fully charged Samsung phone, fished out of a box of about three dozen devices.

On my Uber to the stadium, I tested the phone. As a longtime iPhone user, the Samsung phone’s interface felt a little foreign. But after referencing TikTok guides on what video settings to use, I felt confident enough to give it a run at the show.

I nestled into my nosebleed nook and started testing the Samsung phone.

My seat at the stadium was five floors up from the stage. Panting and sweating after dashing up the stands, I climbed into my chair and tested the zoom function again.

It fared a lot better than my basic iPhone. It clearly captured people sitting in the front row of the concert’s floor area and staff milling about the stage pre-show, which convinced me to stow my phone for the rest of the concert.

I wondered how the iPhone’s Pro or Pro Max models would’ve fared in a head-on fight against the Samsung phone. Still, it seemed like a no-brainer to rely on the rented phone’s 20x zoom.

My skill issues and shaky hands got in the way.

The phone fared well during my pre-concert test run, when I wasn’t holding a glowing light stick and screaming fanchants.

I didn’t account for how my hands would tremble when things got hyped once the show kicked off, or how hard it would be for me to get a good zoom-in on Hong when he was dancing. Skill issues got in the way, and some of my videos ended up looking shaky.

Five floors up may be too far to get a great shot.

Being that far from the stage and contending with the glare of stadium lights didn’t make for fantastic fancams, just passable ones. It wouldn’t have been such a struggle if I had been on the stadium floor or the level-two stands.

I had more fun when I put the phone down.

Some 20 minutes into the concert, I realized I’d spent more time staring at the Samsung phone screen than enjoying the concert. Snapping videos of my top K-pop man was very tempting, but I didn’t want to waste my time at the Seventeen concert adjusting the camera exposure and keeping my hands still when I could be having fun.

When I put the phone down, the concert experience started to hit the spot. Singing along to Hong’s solo song “Fortunate Change” and cheering to group tracks like “Rock With You” was way more enjoyable when I wasn’t clutching the phone and fiddling with the zoom.

I thought Hong still looked gorgeous in every photo and video I took, regardless of quality.

My fifth-floor fancams paled in comparison to some of the ultra-slick photos Hong’s fansites grabbed of him during soundcheck and at the concert proper.

Would I rent a Samsung phone again? Probably not, unless I secure seats closer to the stage.

Still, overall, I was a satisfied customer, having gotten better snaps than I would have with my own phone. And now I have a hard drive with 20 GB of clips of Hong looking mega-hot onstage — and great memories of a night well spent.

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