GoPro
GoPro MAX
A 2019 camera that GoPro quietly refreshed in 2025 with an Enduro battery and a 1/4-20 mount, and which survives because of one thing it still does well: it also works as a normal action camera. Point it forward, pick a digital lens, and the front sensor alone shoots 1440p or 1080p with Max HyperSmooth — historically the most aggressive stabilisation GoPro has ever shipped, because the second lens gives it a bigger picture to steal from. The spherical side is dated: 5.6K30, 8-bit, 78 Mbps, and lenses that cannot be replaced when they scratch. Treat it as a cheap dual-purpose camera with a very good stabilised single-lens mode, not as a current 360 camera — and at GoPro's own prices the newer MAX2 now costs less, so it only makes sense well below list.
Sensor area against the rest of the catalogue
Derived from the standard optical-format table rather than copied off a spec sheet, because makers print a fraction that hides it. The table and the arithmetic.
Battery, with the small print
- Maker’s claim
- 1 h 18 min at 1440p30 single-lens, Enduro battery
- Third-party test
- None collected. We publish a tested figure only where a named outlet has run one and stated its conditions.
What a reframed clip is worth
This camera records 5,376 px across a full 360°. A normal 16:9 clip pulled out of it uses only the slice its field of view covers, so at a typical 80° reframe the usable width is about 1,195 px — roughly 1.2K.
5,376 × (80 ÷ 360) = 1,195 px
An estimate. Stitching, supersampling and the projection move it by a few per cent either way. How this works.
Specifications
What the GoPro Premium plan gates
~$59.99 a year, which is why the year-one figure on this page is ~$429 rather than ~$369.
- •Unlimited cloud storage and automatic upload for GoPro footage
- •Guaranteed camera replacement, no questions asked
- •Up to 50% off GoPro accessories
Features
- ●5.6K30 spherical video with in-camera stitching
- ●Single-lens HERO mode with Max HyperSmooth
- ●PowerPano 270° panoramas, handheld and level
- ●Six microphones for 360 audio
- ●Built-in GPS
- ●1/4-20 thread on the refreshed 2025 version
Strengths
- +Max HyperSmooth in single-lens mode is still among the steadiest footage any GoPro produces
- +One body covers both 360 and conventional shooting, which nothing else here does as well
- +PowerPano produces level 270° panoramas without a tripod
- +Built-in GPS, which most 360 cameras still lack
Drawbacks
- −Lenses are not replaceable, and they are the first thing to scratch on any 360 camera
- −5.6K spherical reframes to well under 2K of usable 16:9
- −8-bit only, with no log profile
- −A 2019 sensor and processor, refreshed only in battery and mount
- −A 2019 processor makes in-camera stitching and the app noticeably slow next to current cameras
What owners say
Summarised from owner discussions and published long-term reviews.
A 2019 camera that survives on one genuinely strong feature. Point it forward and the front lens alone shoots a normal clip with Max HyperSmooth, and because the camera can steal from the other hemisphere the result is steadier than anything the Hero line produces. Owners who keep a MAX around usually keep it for that, not for the spherical footage.
The spherical side has aged. 5.6K sounds close to the current cameras until you work out what a reframed 16:9 clip is actually worth, and at that point it is well under 2K. The lenses cannot be replaced, which on a camera whose glass sticks out past the body is the specification that decides how long it lasts.
Owners were also unimpressed by the 2025 refresh, which added an Enduro battery and a tripod thread and left the imaging untouched. The result is a capable second camera with a very good stabilised mode, and not a current 360 camera.
What owners like
- +The single-lens mode with Max HyperSmooth is still described as some of the steadiest footage any GoPro produces, because the second lens gives the stabiliser far more to work with
- +One body that shoots both spherical and ordinary footage is a combination owners value more than the spec sheet suggests
- +PowerPano produces level 270-degree panoramas handheld, which owners use far more than they expected to
- +Built-in GPS, which most 360 cameras still lack, for speed and route overlays
Common complaints
- −The lenses cannot be replaced, and on a 360 camera that is the part that fails
- −5.6K spherical reframes to well under 2K of usable widescreen, which shows on anything larger than a phone
- −8-bit with no log profile, so there is very little grading latitude
- −The 2025 refresh changed the battery and the mount and nothing else, which owners noticed and complained about
Questions owners keep asking
Is the MAX still worth buying in 2026?
What changed in the 2025 MAX refresh?
What happens when the lenses get scratched?
GoPro MAX, head to head
Cameras people look at alongside it
More from GoPro →
GoPro
GoPro MAX2
Six years after the first MAX, GoPro finally shipped a successor, and the twist-off lens covers are the headline that matters. Every 360 camera lives or dies on scratched glass — the lenses bulge out past the body by design and there is no guarding them properly — and the MAX2 joins the Insta360 X5 in making a scratched lens a field swap rather than a service ticket. Around that sits true 8K spherical at 30 fps with 10-bit colour and GP-Log for grading, a 200 Mbps Maximum Bitrate mode added in GoPro's June 2026 firmware (300 Mbps with the experimental GoPro Labs firmware), built-in GPS and a six-microphone array. The two compromises are real: 5 m of bare waterproofing, the same as the original MAX and a quarter of the Insta360 X6's, and 66 minutes at 8K30 is less than half what the X6 claims.
GoPro
GoPro HERO12 Black
Last year's flagship is still in GoPro's line-up, and the gap to the Hero 13 is narrower than the generation number suggests. Same 1/1.9-inch sensor, same 5.3K60 and 4K120, same 10-bit GP-Log, same HyperSmooth 6.0 with full horizon lock. What you give up is the magnetic latch, the HB lens-mod system, roughly 180 mAh of battery — and GPS, which GoPro dropped on this generation and restored on the next. That last one is the deciding spec for anyone who wants speed, altitude or route data burned into the footage; for everyone else the Hero 12 is a cheaper Hero 13 that takes the same mounts. It also carries a 1/4-20 thread in the base, which the Hero 11 did not.
GoPro
GoPro HERO13 Black
Three generations of the same 1/1.9-inch sensor have gone into this body, and GoPro spent the thirteenth on everything around it instead: a magnetic latch that replaces the fold-out fingers, a 1900 mAh Enduro cell, and the HB-series lens mods the camera recognises and reconfigures itself for. That is the honest shape of the Hero 13. Image quality sits roughly where the Hero 12 left it, the sensor is small next to what DJI and Insta360 now ship, and the stabilisation is still the best in the category by a margin nobody has closed. In a group test that ran four cameras to shutdown side by side, this was the only one that hit its published runtime. The mount ecosystem is the other argument: a decade of GoPro-fingered clamps, chest harnesses, helmet mounts and third-party rigs all still bolt straight on, which is why it stays the default on a motorcycle fairing or a ski helmet even when a rival's spec sheet reads better.