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.
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
- 2 h 15 min at 5.7K30 360 video, screen off, Wi-Fi on auto
- 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 ~$585 rather than ~$549.
- •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
- ●Replaceable fisheye lenses, swappable in minutes
- ●Dual 1/1.28-inch sensors, roughly 2.4× the X4's area
- ●8K30 spherical, supersampled from an 11K capture
- ●PureVideo low-light mode on a triple AI chip stack
- ●Waterproof to 15 m bare, 60 m in the dive case
- ●2400 mAh battery, 135 minutes at 5.7K30
- ●Built-in wind guard
Strengths
- +Replaceable lenses turn the category's worst failure mode into a cheap part swap
- +Big sensor jump over the X4 — the low-light difference is not subtle
- +15 m bare waterproofing, 5 m deeper than the X4 and triple the GoPro MAX2
- +Insta360 Studio's reframing and AI tracking are the best in the category
- +Now sells well below the X6 while keeping most of what matters
Drawbacks
- −8K caps at 30 fps, so reframed slow motion means dropping to 5.7K or 4K
- −Insta360 publishes no colour bit depth for it — only the X6 gets that spec
- −No internal storage, so a slow microSD card is a real failure risk at 8K
- −200 g, the heaviest of the current X-series bodies
What owners say
Summarised from owner discussions and published long-term reviews.
The X5 is the 360 camera the discussion has settled on as the sensible default, and the reason is mostly the lenses. Every 360 camera has bulging fisheye glass that cannot be properly protected, and on the X5 a scratched lens is a twenty-minute swap with a part you can carry in a bag. Owners describe that as changing how willing they are to use the camera in the places it is most fun.
The sensor step up from the X4 is the other change people talk about. There is a recurring question about whether the X5 is really twice the camera the X3 was, and the answers converge on low light being where the difference lives rather than on resolution.
The cautions are practical. Lens guards still get recommended by almost everyone despite the replaceable glass. There is no internal storage, so card choice matters at 8K. And the thing that stops X5s being used is not the hardware at all — it is that every clip needs reframing before it is watchable, which is a time cost owners underestimate.
What owners like
- +Replaceable lenses are the feature owners praise most — scratched fisheye glass is the normal end of a 360 camera and this makes it a cheap part swap
- +The sensor jump over the X4 is large enough that owners asking whether the X5 is 'twice as good' mostly get told the low-light difference alone justifies it
- +Fifteen metres bare covers snorkelling without a case
- +Insta360 Studio's reframing and AI tracking are the reason owners stay with the brand even when a rival's hardware looks better on paper
- +Now that the X6 exists, the X5 sells well below it while keeping most of what matters
Common complaints
- −Owners still report scratching the lenses, replaceable or not — the glass sticks out and lens guards are not optional in practice
- −8K caps at 30 fps, so reframed slow motion means dropping to 5.7K or 4K
- −No internal storage, and a marginal microSD card is a real failure mode at 8K
- −The app draws steady criticism, including for advertising inside it
- −At 200 g it is the heaviest of the current X-series bodies
Questions owners keep asking
Do I still need lens guards if the lenses are replaceable?
Is the X5 a big upgrade over the X3?
What microSD card do I need?
X5 or X6?
Insta360 X5, head to head
Cameras people look at alongside it
More from Insta360 →
Insta360
Insta360 X6
Two things separate this from every other 360 camera on sale. It shoots 8K at 50 fps rather than 30, which is what makes reframed slow motion possible instead of theoretical; and it is the only one that publishes a colour bit depth at all — 10-bit, with I-Log and in-camera Dolby Vision. The 2600 mAh Xtreme battery is rated at 140 minutes of 8K30, more than double what the GoPro MAX2 claims, and 20 m of bare waterproofing is four times MAX2's. A note on the sensors: Insta360 markets these as one-inch, and the spec sheet says 1/1.1-inch, which on the standard optical-format table works out around 92 mm² per lens rather than a true one-inch's 116. That is still the largest per-lens area in the 360 class, and it is why the low-light gap to the X5 is as visible as it is.
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 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.