AKASO action and 360 cameras

Two hundred dollars for a 360 camera with 5.7K spherical capture, 72 MP photos, invisible-selfie-stick reframing and full horizon lock — roughly a third of what an Insta360 X6 costs and a hundred under an X3. The specs it matches are the ones that are cheap to match; the one it does not is the one that matters most outdoors. This camera is weather-resistant, not waterproof, with no depth rating at all and no dive case offered, which rules out the water shooting that half of 360 buying is about. Sixty minutes of recording is short, the lenses are fixed and exposed, and the reframing app is early. As a very cheap way to find out whether you actually like shooting 360, it is defensible; as a camera to keep, less so.

AKASO's flagship, and the one model in its line with a 1/2-inch sensor rather than the 1/2.3-inch chip the rest of the range shares. Two colour screens, 4K60, 48 MP stills, 10 m of bare waterproofing and two 1550 mAh batteries in the box put it on paper somewhere near a mid-range DJI. In use the gap shows where budget cameras always show it: stabilisation that copes with walking but not with vibration, a noticeably slower interface, and no horizon lock, which is the single feature that makes handlebar and helmet footage watchable. Priced at $279 it sits awkwardly close to a DJI Osmo Action 4 with more than twice the sensor area, which is the comparison to make before buying.

The cheapest camera in this catalogue, and it has been AKASO's volume seller for years by being exactly what a first action camera needs to be: 4K30, a touchscreen, a waterproof case, a remote, a mountain of plastic mounts and a price that makes the decision easy. It is also where every corner has been cut. There is no bare waterproofing, no horizon lock, no USB-C, no published weight or runtime, and stabilisation that only works below 4K. The realistic use is a kid's first camera, a snorkelling trip, or a second angle nobody will grade. Anyone planning to actually edit the footage should read the GoPro HERO row instead and find the extra ninety dollars.

Under a hundred dollars with a touchscreen, electronic stabilisation, 4K30 and a 40 m case, which is roughly the floor of what is worth buying at all in this category. The honest framing is that this is a snorkelling and holiday camera: put it in the case, take it in the water, and accept that the footage will look like $99 the moment the light drops or the mount vibrates. Against the V50 Elite it loses 4K60 and voice control for fifty dollars. Against a GoPro HERO at $179 it loses on image quality, stabilisation, and the fact that the GoPro needs no case at all — which is the comparison most people should actually run before the price tag decides it.

Six years old and still selling, because a dual-screen 4K camera with an external microphone jack under $150 does not otherwise exist. The front screen is the reason people buy it: at this price nothing else lets you frame yourself, and the mic input means a lav or shotgun can replace the tinny built-in audio that ruins most budget footage. What you accept is a 4K ceiling of 30 fps, so no slow motion above 1080p, and an IPX7 rating that means splashes rather than swimming — the 40 m case is not optional if it is going near water. Treat it as a cheap talking-head and travel camera rather than a sports one.

AKASO's long-running budget workhorse, and the cheapest camera in this catalogue that shoots 4K at 60 fps rather than 30 — which, on a bike or a board, is the difference between footage you can slow down and footage you cannot. Voice control is unusual at the price too. Everything else is what $149 buys in 2026: a 1/2.3-inch sensor, electronic stabilisation that smooths a walk and not much more, no bare waterproofing at all so the supplied 40 m case does all the work, and a camera design that has not changed since 2019. AKASO does not publish a weight, a bitrate or a runtime for it, which tells you something about the documentation standard across the budget tier.

Drop the front screen and the 1/2-inch sensor from the Brave 8, keep the 4K60, the 48 MP stills, the two 1550 mAh batteries and the 10 m bare waterproofing, and take eighty dollars off. That is a reasonable trade at $199, and the wristband remote AKASO ships instead of the front screen is arguably more useful on a helmet than a screen you cannot see anyway. The sensor drops to the 1/2.3-inch chip most budget cameras use, so low light is where this gives up first. What it is genuinely good at is being the camera you take somewhere you would not take a $400 one: two batteries, a full mount kit, a case rated to 40 m, and nothing to cry about if it comes off a handlebar.