Is the Insta360 X3 better than the GoPro Max? Find out in our in-depth review
The Insta360 X3 has double the water resistance of the GoPro Max, at 10m/33ft, and matches the GoPro Hero 11 Black. Those planning to dive at anything like a depth of 10m should get the Insta360 Dive Case, though. The additional pressures involved when moving through water means anything below fairly surface-level capture is a bit risky.
After 15 minutes the Insta360 X3 dropped from 100% to 87%, suggesting it could actually last a lot longer than 81 minutes. However, following 45 minutes of capture it was at 49% battery, closer to the claim. The Insta360 X3 has a built-in TimeShift mode, which is a form of Timelapse shooting designed to let you use the camera handheld. It doesn’t have the smarts of GoPro’s version, which can automatically shift the footage’s speed up and down based on whether there’s anything interesting going on in the scene. But it’s a quick way to make sped-up clips.
The Insta360 X3 also has several interesting modes we’ve not discussed yet. Me Mode is one of the neatest. This leverages the slight overlap of the lenses’ vision to produce a flat clip in which a stick used to mount the camera becomes invisible. You’ll still see your arm holding it, of course, but it’s great for no-fuss dramatic shots. Insta360 uses someone jumping into the sea, and snowboarding, as a couple of examples.
We found the process fastest on a laptop, as mouse control just feels that bit more precise than on a phone-size touchscreen. 360-degree edited clips are set at 1080p when exporting from the phone app or Insta360 Studio, which may seem too limited when maximum res is 5.7K. However, we saw little obvious benefit after manually changing this to 4K resolution in the desktop Insta360 Studio software.
So, are single lens videos a match for those in single lens cameras from GoPro and Insta360? Not even close. We only had the GoPro Hero 9 Black for direct comparison, but that older model has prettier color and much better detail at 4K, particularly out of the center of the frame. These flat videos become quite muggy and basic-looking at the corners of the shot, and look much more like 1080p captures than 4K.
Sometimes the results are quite brilliant, and give you loads more highlight detail to play with in the edit. It’s extremely useful when you’re shooting outdoors, or when there’s partial tree cover up top – one of the tricky parts of shooting 360 video is the exposure level is not just judged on what’s in front of you, but your entire surroundings.
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