Recently, Insta360 launched the newest panoramic sports camera X4. Let’s share our experience with this product. The Insta360 X4 doesn’t really bring anything particularly new to the table compared with the X3, but there’s some serious performance upgrading and detail refining to solve a heap of user pain points. For instance, coming with a new 5nm AI chip, the X4 upgrades the previous generation’s video recording capability from 5.7K 30fps to 8K 30fps and supports 4K 100fps slow-motion shooting. The screen size and battery capacity have been further increased. but we guess you need more info about each feature.
Design
The new Insta360 X4 Panoramic Sports Camera is still in the same design style as the previous generation—essentially similar to its predecessor, the X3, while being a little bigger: 123.6 mm x 46 mm x 37.6 mm, weighing 203g. It feels a little narrower and thicker than a mobile phone—in comparison, the Huawei Pura 70 measures 157.6mm x 74.3mm x 7.95mm and weighs 207g. The shift to a volume increase of 23.2% allows the Insta360 X4 to make betterments in terms of screen size and battery size.
The Insta360 X4 has its body fully enclosed with anti-slip particles for better grip and extra protection when it suffers a drop. A wavy texture below the rear camera helps in holding it well, and there is also a 1/4 standard screw socket at the bottom of the body in order to fasten a tripod or selfie stick.
On the right-hand side of the Insta360 X4, there is a microphone, a power button, and custom buttons. On the left, it has a USB 3.0 Type-C interface and a battery.
The Insta360 X4 uses a quick-release battery design. Just press the buckle, and the battery pops out, very useful in situations when outdoors you want to change and charge your batteries rapidly. The lithium batteries are now bumped up from 1800mAh on the last generation to 2290mAh, an increase of 27.2%.
Attention must be paid to the fact that the microSD memory card slot is connected to the battery compartment of the Insta360 X4. In other words, to replace the memory card, one needs to remove the battery first. If this is the first time you have used an Insta360 X series panoramic camera, remember to check briefly.
Screen and more
The Insta360 X4 features a 2.5-inch touchscreen, which may be called an “ultra-large screen” among sports cameras. It comes with a Corning Gorilla Glass, supporting high resolution and brightness for outdoor conditions.
The touchscreen combines a variety of daily functions, where users can choose single-lens or 360° panoramic shooting and switch between different modes. Touch is supported on the screen, and there are two buttons at the bottom of the body for interactive operations.
It’s just that the buttons on the body seem a little hard to press, supposedly for the sake of durability and avoidance of mistouches. This includes the buckle of the charging port. It won’t be considered a flaw because “durability” is very important for an outdoor sports camera.
Here, you can see the two fisheye cameras protrude both in the front and back of the Insta360 X4. So one needs to protect the lens all the time during daily life use. The new generation has added a detachable lens protection function. Inside the package, there is a normal package of lens protection cover. You can eventually have high image quality with a high-end glass lens protection cover if you want.
Accessories
It also includes some protecting cloths from Insta360, like a Soft Cloth Protective Cover and a lens cleaning cloth. You can put the camera in this protective cover if you don’t use it. If you feel the viewfinder is too big, then you can purchase a small silicone lens protective cover.
We also received two important shooting accessories for the Insta360 X series of panoramic sports cameras: the 85cm portable invisible selfie stick and a 3-meter carbon fiber super-long selfie stick. With a super-long extendable length, it can realize an outdoor follow-up effect like a drone, greatly enhancing the experience.
The Insta360 also supports bicycle mounts, handheld buoyancy bars, and fully invisible diving shells for Insta360 X4 in scenes of cycling, swimming, and diving.
The X4 itself can support up to 10 meters without any case and 50 meters if equipped with a fully invisible diving case.
Shooting Experience
The Insta360 X series panoramic sports camera is unique as it can capture 360° scenes. Now, with this, one does not have to consider scene angles, picture composition, or arrangements of cameras; everything is just point-and-click while on the move.
The Insta360 X4 image module remains the same as that in Insta360 ONE R: an IMX586 sensor, 1/2 inch, 48MP, both at the front and back. It, however, highlights a new, upgraded 5nm AI chip, increasing its overall imaging capability, including 360° panoramic motion HDR video shooting, 8K 30fps, 5.7K 60fps, 4K 100fps video recording, and 72MP panoramic photos with a resolution of 11904×5952 and in-camera AI noise reduction.
The Insta360 X4 supports the exporting of 2D/panoramic videos up to a maximum bit rate of 150Mbps, with the highest specifications as follows:
- 8K 30fps: Supports exporting 4K 30fps videos
- 5.7K 60fps: Supports exporting 4K 60fps videos
- 5.7K 30fps HDR: Supports exporting 4K 30fps videos
- 4K 100fps: Supports exporting 4K 50fps videos
- Bullet Time: Supports exporting 4K 60fps videos
- Time-lapse shooting: Supports exporting 4K 30fps videos
The Insta360 X4 supports the requirements of diversified recording, including waterproofing up to 10 meters, FlowState anti-shake technology, and 360° horizontal correction.
Long-range detail performance – top: 5.7K 30fps, bottom: 8K 30fps
In severe low light, the performance in 8K 30fps and 5.7K 30fps modes is basically the same for an X4. The picture will be brighter in 5.7K mode. So it is recommended to use 5.7K 30fps mode to shoot the scenes at night.
5.7K 30fps, bottom: 8K 30fps
The Insta360 X4 also upgraded the system UI and operating fluency, increasing rotation and displaying battery percentage.
Battery and charging
For battery life and heat-generation tests, results showed that: It would overheat by 8K30fps video recording at nearly 36 minutes; a single battery can record for 1 hour and 16 minutes. Continuous recording of 5.7K30fps video without overheating was for 2 hours and 16 minutes.
The Insta360 X4 also supports 9V2A Fast and can thus be fully charged within 60 minutes, with pretty outstanding battery life.
However, note that the Insta360 X4 will stop recording at 7% battery life, not allowing video recording or photo capture. So users should strategize accordingly.
Viewing angle of the 3m selfie stick
We have tried both an 85cm portable invisible selfie stick and a 3m carbon fiber super long selfie stick. We prefer the former:
- Uliumi sticks 85cm portable invisible selfie stick holds more firmly and controls more powerfully.
- A 3m ultra-long selfie stick presents a special angle but requires further familiarity with one’s surroundings.
- Control from the Apple Watch is unavailable for now. Insta360 X4 will give users, after the realization of the function in the upgrade of the APP, more powerful control than gesture recognition.
The Insta360 X4 minimizes the threshold for taking footage a lot; more difficult is the courage to run around outdoors with a stick. This sports camera helped overcome social anxiety, making the enjoyment of sports and travel unmatched.
Editing Experience
While 360° panoramic cameras offer much flexibility for “shoot first, frame later” constraints, they increase the complexity of editing. To this end, Insta360 has enhanced preset shooting modes in the X series cameras and given strong editing options available in the app.
The Insta360 makes use of AI to monitor changes in sound and motion whenever its camera setting is set to AI Highlight Assistant mode. Thereafter, capturing a number of “highlight” clips becomes possible, automatically framing a view including something of interest.
The application provides panoramic video editing, fine editing, and AI framing, together with quick editing powered by the phone’s gyroscope and touch screen that empowers intuitive “re-framing.” However, Quick Cut does not allow custom output frame rates for high frame-rate videos like 4K 100fps.
The Insta360 app offers one-click filming, an AI creative library, and theme templates for those who want to make editing easier. The AI Creative Library provides various video templates such as AI Magician, Magic Sky, Time-lapse, Sky Flip, and Mobile Clone.
For example, AI Magician offers three free AI video production opportunities daily, featuring styles such as cyber and science fiction. Though AI Creative Library reduces the threshold of use, it has some limitations. For example, Magic Sky supports videos only in 5.7K 30fps and is able to output them only in 1080P 30fps format, limited to 15 seconds. Users need to choose the appropriate settings before capturing, suitable for posting on social media platforms like Moments and Douyin.
Software
There’s also Insta360 Studio PC software—along with an editing plug-in for Adobe Premiere Pro—for more advanced editing. In total, Insta360 Studio software has two main sections: “Media” and “Project.”
The “Media” section allows Insta360 panoramic video and photo imports, with anti-shake settings, lens stitching options, image processing, audio noise reduction, and logo watermark functions. The “Project” section of the software is much like other common video editing software, offering styles like music, text, and transitions.
The Insta360 mobile device application could benefit from some minor improvements. For example, showing the remaining phone storage and the estimated completion time when downloading video files from a camera into the local device would reduce anxiety for the user.
As AI usage becomes more popular on PCs, users will expect Insta360 to offer additional AI editing functions on the PC platform by leveraging its greater computing power.
Conclusion
The Insta360 X4 panorama sports camera brings an upgrade to record 8K video, with the same sensor and increased battery capacity, along with improvements to optimize user experience. While this device isn’t perfect, it certainly delivers the best possible performance with current technology.
For any outdoor sporty person or vlogger looking to capture everything around them, the Insta360 X4 retains its irreplaceability. It looks less like a traditional sports camera and feels more like a time machine that can freeze moments one would record.
