Insta360 X4 Action Camera Review

Why you should trust this review

I bought the Insta360 X4 with my own money in late 2025 and have carried it for six months across mountain biking, a couple of ski days, snorkeling, and a lot of ordinary handheld walking footage. Insta360 did not send me a sample, did not see this review before publication, and has no input on what I say here. That matters with 360 cameras specifically, because the marketing is unusually slick and the real-world workflow is unusually demanding, and the gap between the two is exactly what an honest review has to cover.

I came to the X4 as a GoPro user, so my baseline is the linear, point-and-shoot action camera most people already know. I kept a GoPro Hero in the rotation the whole time so my impressions are comparative rather than abstract. Where I cite a number from Insta360’s spec sheet rather than something I measured, I say so.

How we evaluated

I used the X4 as my primary action camera for six months, not as a weekend novelty. I shot at the 8K 360 and 4K wide modes, ran the battery flat repeatedly to see how the 165-minute claim holds in cold and warm conditions, took it to 10 meters while snorkeling to check the waterproofing, and put real hours into the desktop and mobile editing apps because that is where 360 footage lives or dies. I also bolted it to a bike helmet, a chest mount, and the invisible selfie stick to judge stabilization across mounts.

Crucially, I judged the camera on finished, exported clips, not the live preview. A 360 camera that captures beautifully but produces footage you never finish editing is a failure, so the test was whether I actually shipped usable video. I also tested the voice control, the AI tracking and auto-edit tools, and the practical realities that decide whether you keep using a camera, how fast files transfer, how hungry the workflow is on a laptop, and how the camera holds up to knocks on a helmet and pack, because a 360 camera lives or dies on whether it survives both the ride and the edit.

8K 360 capture and reframing in post

The headline feature is real and it changes how you film. Because the X4 records the entire sphere around it, you are not pointing at anything during the action. You ride, ski, or walk, and you decide where the camera was looking afterward, dragging a virtual lens around the footage on a timeline. For action where the interesting thing happens behind or beside you, this is genuinely transformative. I caught a rider passing me on a trail that I never would have framed in time with a forward-facing GoPro.

The 8K resolution exists to survive this workflow. When you reframe a 360 sphere down to a flat 1080p or 4K clip, you are cropping aggressively into the captured pixels, so you need a lot of them to start with. At 8K the reframed output holds up well in good light. In dim conditions the cropping shows more noise, and that is the honest limit: 360 reframing is a daylight superpower and a dusk compromise.

Battery life and waterproofing

Insta360 rates the 2290 mAh battery at 165 minutes of recording, and in mild conditions I got close to that on lower-intensity modes. That is meaningfully longer than the GoPro I shot alongside, which is the single biggest practical quality-of-life difference day to day. I carried fewer spares and stopped fewer times. Cold weather cuts into the figure as it does with every camera, so on ski days I kept the battery warm in a jacket pocket until I needed it.

The IPX8 waterproofing rated to 10 meters held up snorkeling with no issues. One caveat that is true of all 360 cameras: water droplets on the two lenses are very visible in the final footage because there is no flat lens cover to wipe cleanly, so I carried a microfiber cloth and learned to do a quick lens wipe before each underwater take.

Stabilization, size, and the editing learning curve

FlowState stabilization is excellent. Handheld walking footage looks gimbal-smooth, and on the bike the horizon stays level through chop. This is the area where the X4 needs no apology. The trade-offs are physical and procedural. The X4 is noticeably larger and chunkier than a GoPro, so it is less pocketable and more conspicuous on a helmet. If discretion or minimal bulk matters to you, that is a real downside.

The bigger commitment is editing. Every 360 clip has to be processed and reframed before it is usable, which is more work than trimming a linear GoPro file. The app is capable and the AI auto-edit and tracking features genuinely help, but expect a learning curve and budget time at the computer. People who want to dump footage straight to a phone with zero post-work will find this frustrating. People who enjoy editing will find it powerful. The AI tools soften the curve more than I expected: the auto-edit can stitch together a watchable highlight reel from a clip with minimal input, and the subject tracking keeps a moving rider or skier centered in the reframed shot without manual keyframing, which is genuinely the feature that took me from dreading the edit to actually finishing clips. Voice control worked reliably enough to start and stop recording with gloves on, which matters when the camera is on a helmet and your hands are busy. The other practical reality is file size: 8K 360 footage is large, transfers take time, and editing it smoothly wants a reasonably capable computer, so factor in storage and a machine that can keep up before you commit to the workflow.

Who should buy the Insta360 X4?

Buy it if you are a content creator or enthusiast who wants the flexibility to reframe shots after the fact, you film solo and want the invisible-selfie-stick third-person look, you value the longer battery, and you do not mind spending time in the editing app to get finished clips.

Skip it if you want the smallest possible camera, you shoot in mostly low light, or you want point-and-shoot footage with minimal editing. In those cases a traditional linear action camera like a GoPro is the better tool, and there is no shame in that.

The verdict

After six months, the Insta360 X4 earned its place in my bag. It is not a strict GoPro replacement; it is a different way of filming that trades simplicity for creative flexibility. If you embrace the 360 reframing workflow, the X4 lets you capture moments a forward-facing camera would miss, and the battery and stabilization make it pleasant to live with. If you want a camera you point and forget, this is not it. For the creator who wants the most flexible action footage available and is willing to put in editing time, the X4 is the one I recommend.