This $500 Smart Telescope Shaped Like a Periscope Can Spy on Galaxies or Backyard Birds

Of all the smart telescopes we’ve seen that lack eyepieces, most still look like telescopes (or perhaps, in the Vespera telescope’s case, like the turrets from Portal). The $460 Dwarf II Smart Telescope, with its rectangular design, proved that we don’t necessarily need a conical-shaped device to spot distant stars and galaxies. Now, the company’s coming along with the Dwarf 3, a design that’s just slightly larger than before, but Dwarflabs promises far better long-distance shots thanks to a better lens and more support for photography both night and day.

Most higher-end smart telescopes can cost thousands of dollars for a large body, even without an eyepiece. Take Unistellar’s $2,300 Odyssey with its automatic celestial object tracking, even less than its eQuinox 2 from 2023 at $2,500. The Dwarf series is a constrained, contained rendition of the smart telescope with its small, walkman-shaped body and rotating lenses with a 35mm aperture. The devices are meant to be hands-off, with auto-focus and modes to automatically find nearby nebulae, star clusters, or planets through an app.

The $500 Dwarf III is taking what already worked with the Dwarf II, but now it can take wide-angle video and pictures that should be better for daytime environments. The small smart telescope could already take some impressive 4K imagery of stars, nebulae, or distant planets. The company promises the new version can use AI tracking to photograph moving birds or other animals. 

Regarding specs, the Dwarf III seems like a better rendition of the design than the Dwarf II. It’s sporting the newer Sony IMX678 8.86 mm sensor from 2024. This time, it’s using 150mm telelens compared to the 100 mm from the Dwarf 2, though its wide lens shrunk to 6.7 mm from 6.8. Dwarflabs claims it can shoot equivalent to a 737 mm telephoto lens, and it now supports Astro and dual-band filters as well as VIS for a clearer picture of the night sky. The wide lens also supports Astro, but that lens is better for targets on Earth.

The Dwarf III can take higher-speed video with both lenses than its older brother. It can now do 4K video at 30 FPS and 1080p at 60 FPS through the telephoto lens. Before, it was restricted to 25 FPS and 30 FPS at the respective resolutions. The wide-angle lens has been upgraded to do 1080p video at 30 FPS. It still takes telephoto images at 3840 x 2160 resolution, but the wide-angle now shoots at 1920 x 1080. It doesn’t sound too great compared to what you may get with dedicated devices. I can imagine it’s useful for hiking and looking for a place without any light pollution; it may be an excellent way to grab wildlife snaps in the light of the setting sun as you prop yourself up for some night photography. 

If you’re out and about, you’ll also benefit from the new 10,000 mAh battery, nearly twice as much as the Dwarf II’s replaceable 5600 mAh. This one’s built-in, however, so instead of swapping out the pack, you’ll need to have a power bank nearby if you start running low. Previously, you had to spend nearly $600 for the “deluxe” edition with an extra battery. At least, this version now comes with 128 GB of onboard storage compared to the last one that included a 64 GB micro SD card.

The Dwarf III’s size is a perk for photography. However, if all you want to do is look into the night sky, there are small-scale smart binoculars like the $800 Unistellar Envision that lack any photography capabilities whatsoever. We also found the Dwarf 2 was far better with the ECH filter that came with the deluxe edition to help avoid ambient light, plus a solar filter for taking snaps of the Sun. We contacted Dwarflabs to see if those are coming later or if they’re compatible with the new version.