Insta360
Insta360 X4 Air
Lightest 8K 360 camera Insta360 has built, at 165 g — 35 g under the X5 and 31 g under the X6 — and that number is the whole pitch. On a helmet or the end of a selfie stick, thirty grams is the difference between a rig that stays put and one that wobbles. It keeps the things that matter most from the X5: replaceable lenses, 15 m of bare waterproofing, magnetic mounting. The sensors step down to 1/1.8-inch, roughly half the X5's area, and the frame-rate ceiling drops to 4K50 in single-lens mode against the X5's 4K120. Against the X4 it is the better camera in every way except peak bitrate, at a lower price, which makes the older model a hard recommend now.
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 28 min at 8K30 360 video, screen off, Wi-Fi on auto, standard bitrate
- 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 7,680 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 1,707 px — roughly 1.7K.
7,680 × (80 ÷ 360) = 1,707 px
An estimate. Stitching, supersampling and the projection move it by a few per cent either way. How this works.
Specifications
What the Insta360+ plan gates
~$35.88 a year, which is why the year-one figure on this page is ~$435 rather than ~$399.
- •Cloud storage from 200 GB up (X-series cameras need the Premium tier)
- •Free camera replacement through Insta360 Care / FlexiCare
- •A free extra year of warranty
- •Priority shipping from the Insta360 store
Features
- ●165 g, the lightest 8K 360 camera here
- ●8K30 spherical with replaceable lenses
- ●Dual 1/1.8-inch sensors, an upgrade on the X4's 1/2-inch
- ●Waterproof to 15 m bare, 60 m in the dive case
- ●Magnetic quick-release mounting
- ●180 Mbps ceiling
Strengths
- +35 g lighter than the X5, which is felt immediately on a pole or a helmet
- +Replaceable lenses and 15 m bare waterproofing, both inherited from the X5
- +Bigger sensors and a lower price than the X4 it sits beside
- +Magnetic mounting, which the X4 does not have
Drawbacks
- −Sensors are roughly half the X5's area — this is a daylight camera
- −Single-lens mode caps at 4K50 against the X5's 4K120
- −88 minutes at 8K30 from a smaller 2010 mAh battery
- −No colour bit depth published, same as the rest of the line below the X6
- −The 2010 mAh cell is the smallest battery in the current X-series
What owners say
Summarised from owner discussions and published long-term reviews.
Insta360's lightest 8K 360 camera, and in a category where most of the shooting happens on the end of a selfie stick, 165 grams against the X5's 200 is not a rounding error. Owners who have swapped describe the difference on a pole and on a helmet as immediately obvious.
It keeps the two X5 features that decide how long a 360 camera lasts — replaceable lenses and 15 metres of bare waterproofing — while stepping the sensors down to 1/1.8-inch, roughly half the X5's area. That places it clearly as a daylight camera, and the single-lens frame-rate ceiling drops too.
Against the X4 it sits beside on price, it is the better camera in nearly every respect: larger sensors, replaceable lenses, deeper water rating, magnetic mounting. Owners choosing between the two mostly end up here.
What owners like
- +The weight is the point and owners feel it immediately — 35 g under an X5 is noticeable on a pole or a helmet
- +It keeps replaceable lenses and 15 metres of bare waterproofing from the X5, which are the two features that matter most for longevity
- +Bigger sensors and a lower price than the X4 it sits beside, which makes the older camera hard to recommend
- +Magnetic mounting, which the X4 does not have
Common complaints
- −The sensors are roughly half the X5's area, so it is still a daylight camera
- −Single-lens mode caps at 4K50 against the X5's 4K120
- −Eighty-eight minutes at 8K30 from a smaller battery
- −No published colour bit depth, the same as everything in the line below the X6
Questions owners keep asking
X4 Air or X5?
Is it better than the X4?
How light is it really?
Insta360 X4 Air, head to head
Cameras people look at alongside it
More from Insta360 →
Insta360
Insta360 X4
First of the X-series to shoot 8K, and the model that made spherical capture mainstream on bike handlebars and ski poles. The 200 Mbps ceiling is actually the highest of any X-series camera except the X6 — Insta360 spent the bitrate on holding detail through the stitch. What the X4 does not have is the thing the X5 introduced: its lenses are fixed, and a scratched fisheye is a service job. The sensors are 1/2-inch, less than half the X5's area, which is exactly where the two cameras separate once the light drops. Bought as a daylight camera at its current price, it is a lot of resolution for the money; bought expecting the X5's night performance, it will disappoint.
Insta360
Insta360 X3
Four years old and still on sale, because the entry price into spherical capture has not really moved below it. 5.7K30 is the ceiling — this is the generation before the X-series went 8K — and reframed to a normal 16:9 shot that leaves roughly 1.3K of usable width at a typical field of view, which is the honest number the marketing never quotes. What it does well is exactly what it did in 2022: throw it on a selfie stick, shoot everything, decide where to point later, and let FlowState make the result watchable. The 2.29-inch screen was the first usable one on a 360 camera, and the invisible selfie stick trick still reads as magic to anyone who has not seen it.
Insta360
Insta360 X5
Replaceable lenses arrived here first, and they changed the economics of owning a 360 camera. The fisheye glass on any spherical camera sticks out past the body and gets scratched — it is the category's defining failure mode — and on the X5 a scratched lens is a twenty-minute swap with a part you can keep in a bag. Around that, dual 1/1.28-inch sensors with roughly 2.4× the area of the X4's drive 8K30 supersampled down from an 11K capture, and a triple-chip stack runs PureVideo for low light. Fifteen metres of bare waterproofing, 2400 mAh, 135 minutes at 5.7K30. Against the newer X6 it gives up 8K50, 10-bit and 5 m of depth; against everything else, it is still the 360 camera most people should buy.