I bought this tripod specifically so I could use my phone to video the eclipse, hands free. For being so inexpensive and cheaply made, it worked surprisingly well. I started recording about an hour before totality and ended about half an hour after, and the only issue I had was when my phone needed to point directly above—the shifted weight caused the tripod to tip over. No matter what I did, it just would not balance itself so after several minutes of phone drops followed by lots of cursing and complaining, I ended up using random items that were within reach to prop it up. For reference I have an iPhone 14 Pro. Other than that it got the job done. I played around with it as a selfie stick (worked fine) and I also experimented with the remote. I didn't use it during the eclipse, but I did practice using it just in case I changed my mind. I didn't, but I can say there is a delay between pushing the shutter button on the remote and the camera actually snapping a photo. The delay ranged from three seconds to almost six, so it was too unpredictable to try to use to capture a once-in-a-lifetime event.
For anyone looking to buy a tripod for one time use like I was, this gets the job done without breaking the bank.
All in all I would recommend the tripod as long as you don't need to point your phone straight up. I wouldn't recommend using the remote to snap photos of important events because the delay might cause you to miss the good stuff.