The Insta360 X-series has long sat at the top of the best 360 cameras, but the camera maker doesn’t just want to replace the X5 with the new Insta360 X6 – no, the company wants to replace three cameras in one.
The Insta360 X6 levels up the company’s flagship 360 model with larger sensors, AI that edits videos in the background, and Dolby Vision (a first for 360 cameras that means optimized brightness and contrast). But the X6 also sits at a higher price point than the X5’s launch price.
The key upgrade to the X6 is the move to two Sony 1/1.1-inch sensors. Those sensors are about a third larger than the X5’s, but Insta360 says the X6 has about four times as much light-gathering power.
Along with that sensor, Insta360 didn’t add one processor but three – a move to add five times more computing power. Besides aiding the 360 camera’s sharpness and denoising, that massive update in power is built for AI that works behind the scenes.
That opens the door to higher resolution output, including 5K60fps video in single-camera mode, but that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Insta360 explains that, when the X6 is plugged in, the camera automatically begins assembling a highlight reel of the footage using on-board AI, wirelessly delivering the edit to a smartphone. Insta360’s Auto Edit is still intact and improved to version 2.0, giving users tools to create an automatic edit but with more fine-tuned control like the framing, camera movement, cuts, and music.
There is even the power available to create 3D models of an environment using 3D Gaussian splatting, and "return anytime."
360 cameras have often served as a replacement for action cameras too – using a single lens instead of two for more standard POV footage. But Insta360 says the X6 does the job of not just two cameras but three: a 360 camera, an action camera, and a gimbal camera.
The X6 has a new flat tracking mode that tracks a person across a standard 4K frame, which Insta360 says gives the X6 the ability to act like a gimbal camera. Gimbal cameras like the DJI Pocket series have risen dramatically in popularity – and Insta360 now even has its own take on the format with the Insta360 Luna Ultra.
The move to add a gimbal cam mode makes a lot of sense – much of the benefit of 360 cameras comes from the fact that the immersive data means adjusting the framing or adding stabilization doesn’t decimate the video’s resolution.
Insta360 is putting those extra pixels into use with a flat tracking mode that produces a standard frame video while tracking a subject. 360 cameras could do this before with re-framing, but the new InstaFrame 2.0 acts like a gimbal camera without any editing. The X6 isn’t about to replace the Insta360 Luna Ultra gimbal cam that launched just two months ago – as the Luna uses a dual lens design that also allows for more telephoto shots – but it aims to build in wide-angle tracking without a second camera.
Compared to the earlier X5 – the camera that sits at the top of the list of the best 360 cameras – the X6 goes beyond the updated sensor and processor and also adds more battery life, I-Log recording, upgraded cooling, and more durable lens covers (that are also cheaper to replace).
Those upgrades, however, come at a cost. The X5 debuted at $549.99 / £519.99 / AU$929.99, but the X6 comes in at $699 / £619 / AU1,049.
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