The short review is that this device works decent for its inexpensive price, and the hardware is certainly able to capture a good image if you spend a LOT of time with it, but the hardware itself is really just pieces of imported junk technology so they have all the typical asian product problems.I haven't tried using the phone app and frankly don't want to try after reading the negative reviews on it. Instead I used the PC software that you can download, which seems to be a windows camera capture program since it also identifies other USB webcams. The capture program doesn't have an installer, instead it simply opens up in its parent folder on your harddrive. You should place it in a "microscope camera" folder to keep the pictures and videos contained there, otherwise they may get saved in some random spot.Tip: when using windows 10, open your "camera privacy settings" then allow apps to use the camera. Otherwise the program won't work correctly.Everything else is pretty bad... in particular the microscope's stand is almost worthless. It's the cheapest of cheap chunks of plastic that kinda-sorta hold the microscope. You will find yourself constantly fighting it. If I end up using this device more, I'll absolutely make a new stand that can actually hold it with some level of rigidity.Unfortunately you have to physically touch the microscope for focus adjustment so you'll end up fiddling with it anyway. When using the PC capture program, the computer can take a shutter button instead of touching the camera.I suppose you could use it as a handheld microscope but that would be sooooo hard to focus. but hey give it a try.All in all, for the price this is a decent "baby's first microscope" to capture images and videos. Probably can't get much better unless you spend a couple hundo. I think my nieces and nephews would like it but there's no way they would be able to get a good image so they need something more traditional.