Sleeker, More Practical, and More User-Centric.

As one of the few motorcycle enthusiasts at Leitech, Xiao Lei (Editor: Dingxi) has invested heavily in motorcycle accessories, with a significant portion going towards various action cameras. Ostensibly for "recording riding adventures," these cameras in reality serve to give onlookers the impression that "this person is a professional."

During a motorcycle trip to Tibet last year, Xiao Lei purchased an Insta360 X3. While a first-person action camera can only capture a single perspective, a panorama camera like the X3 can record the journey in 360° with no blind spots.

(Image source: Leitech production)

However, let's be candid; the Insta360 X3's performance in image quality, night photography, and the app can be described as functional, but not particularly user-friendly. Though the Insta360 X4, released last year, saw notable upgrades across various aspects, it still failed to ignite Xiao Lei's desire to purchase.

(Image source: Leitech production)

The newly launched Insta360 X5 (hereinafter referred to as Insta360 X5) finally meets Xiao Lei's needs across all aspects. So, how is the experience? Below is Xiao Lei's detailed sharing.

Subtle Design Changes, Enhanced Practicality

The back of the Insta360 X4, released last year, featured a wave-like design. Xiao Lei speculates that Insta360 aimed to increase friction for a better grip, preventing it from slipping out of the hand. However, this design flaw is also evident – it collects dust easily.

(Image source: Leitech production)

The Insta360 X5 combines the simplicity of the X3 with the anti-slip design of the X4. The diamond-like raised texture on the back balances both hand feel and aesthetics. Xiao Lei personally believes that the Insta360 X5 is the best-looking model among all generations.

There isn't much change in the lens design. The two large fisheye lenses still perfectly achieve 360° perspective shooting.

As users of Insta360 panorama cameras know, since the fisheye lens is much higher than the camera body, it's inevitable to bump into things during daily use. The usual solution is to install a protective lens. However, ordinary plastic protective lenses can severely affect imaging and image quality, while glass protective lenses are not exactly cheap.

To address this pain point, the Insta360 X5 introduces an innovative design – it first coats the lens with an optically super-hard diamond film, integrating the lens directly with a high-grade protective lens, and also introducing interchangeable lenses. By purchasing an additional lens kit, you receive two original glass lenses and a small tool. It only takes 30 seconds to replace the lens, and even if you accidentally break the lens while traveling, you can quickly replace it and continue using it.

It has to be said that the Insta360 X5 truly understands user needs.

In terms of size, the Insta360 X5 remains almost unchanged from the previous generation, weighing in at 208g, making it suitable for being fixed to handlebars or other brackets through adapters.

Interestingly, the bottom of the Insta360 X5 has an additional interface for a magnetic bracket. Xiao Lei tested it and found that it perfectly fits the magnetic bracket of the Ace Pro 2. It seems that Insta360 has also recognized the convenience of magnetic brackets.

The front of the Insta360 X5 features a 2.5-inch touchscreen, considered large for an action camera. The large screen can display more content and provide a better control experience. Coupled with higher resolution and brightness, it allows you to see the screen clearly even in bright sunlight.

(Image source: Leitech production)

In terms of buttons, there is a record/stop button and a shooting mode switch button below the screen, while the power button and custom Q menu are placed on the right side of the body. There is virtually no learning curve to using them, and it also supports directly starting recording by clicking the record button when the camera is turned off.

Image Quality Upgrade, Unique Night Photography

However, what captivates Xiao Lei the most about the Insta360 X5 is the improvement in image quality. Firstly, the camera sensor size has been upgraded from two 1/2-inch sensors to two 1/1.28-inch sensors, which is 2.44 times the original area. Officially, it boasts a dynamic range of 13.5 stops.

Secondly, the Insta360 X5 is equipped with three chips: a 5nm AI chip for data processing and two ISP professional imaging chips. The former significantly boosts computing power, while the latter is primarily responsible for image processing, such as noise reduction, to make the image purer and brighter.

An imaging system comprising three high-performance chips and two large sensors is a formidable presence in both the smartphone and camera industries.

In terms of video and photo resolution, the Insta360 X5 supports multiple formats for shooting. For example, in 360° panorama mode, users can choose between 8K, 5.7K+, 5.7K, and 4K resolutions, while single-lens mode offers 4K, 2.7K, and 1080p resolutions.

We started testing with the most challenging night scene. When officially starting to shoot, the Insta360 X5 will recognize the low-light scene and prompt the user on the screen whether to switch to night mode. Although this is a subtle detail, it is precisely these small details that enhance the overall experience.

(Image source: Leitech production)

Night mode is a new feature added by the Insta360 X5. When Xiao Lei used the Insta360 X3 before, he was frustrated by the somewhat "excessive" night photography to the point of wanting to sell it second-hand, mainly due to poor image quality and excessive noise. The Insta360 X5 utilizes the AI computing power of the processor to derive an AI intelligent noise reduction function, ensuring the purity of the image while maintaining the original brightness and quality as much as possible.

From the GIF, we can see that the noise in the Insta360 X5's image has been almost suppressed to an invisible state. Although some smudging can still be seen on the edges of the image when enlarged, this performance is already top-notch for a panorama action camera.

(Image source: Leitech production)

Various neon signs in the city can be a major challenge for cameras, especially when recording videos. If the algorithm or hardware is not up to par, it will result in a large amount of halo around the neon signs, and the text on the signs will also be obscured.

However, the performance of the Insta360 X5 is quite impressive. It can not only accurately restore the original colors of the neon signs but also well balance the overall brightness of the image, making the entire scene look neither overexposed nor too dark, in other words, more natural.

Moreover, when riding, it's inevitable to encounter bumps due to uneven roads, but the Insta360 X5 does a remarkable job of filtering out these shakes without the help of a stabilizer.

(Image source: Leitech production)

Furthermore, if you have used other brands of action cameras or previous Insta360 panorama cameras, you will find that wind noise significantly affects post-editing processing. The Insta360 X5 first incorporates a new windscreen design at the hardware level to filter out some wind noise. Secondly, it introduces a new noise reduction algorithm. With the combination of hardware and software, wind noise is suppressed to a minimum.

(Image source: Leitech production)

In well-lit daylight, the performance of the Insta360 X5 is even more impressive. After enabling 8K30fps, you can randomly capture a frame from the video, and its resolution and color are very pleasing. Such high resolution can also meet users' needs for secondary cropping and framing.

(Image source: Leitech production)

In addition to regular riding, the Insta360 X5 also offers various built-in recording features: such as bullet time, time-lapse photography, moving time-lapse, loop recording, starry sky mode, dashcam mode, free-ratio recording, etc. Almost every user can find their own needs here. For motorcycle users like Xiao Lei, the dashcam mode that can both record and save memory is naturally the first choice.

Sleeker, More Practical, and More User-Centric

Xiao Lei mentioned at the beginning that the biggest advantage of panorama cameras is that they can record in 360° with no dead angles, which also brings another advantage: no need to adjust the perspective and shooting beforehand with great effort.

After shooting, we can directly select the desired angle in the software for export. Of course, Insta360 also provides three angles. For example, when Xiao Lei usually rides, he can choose to fix the screen in the direction he is heading. This way, we don't need to adjust the angle for each scene and can directly export the "first-person view" of riding after filming.

Assuming you're still unsure which angle is more suitable for your video, the Highlight Clips feature comes in handy. It supports AI analysis through changes in sound and movement, automatically framing noteworthy subjects, and selecting what it considers the "highlight moments".

(Image source: Leitech production)

Xiao Lei also conducted several tests and found that the clips it edited were basically decent. For example, when Xiao Lei threw in a 40-minute video, it would automatically identify some interesting clips within the video. Although sometimes there would be some incomprehensible clips, for motorcycle enthusiasts like Xiao Lei who need to record for more than an hour or two from the start, it greatly reduces the workload of post-editing.

The characteristics of the two fisheye lenses are also fully utilized by the Insta360 X5. We can not only adjust the angle by manually dragging the image but also click on various angle templates in the software to achieve it. Among them, the footage shot using the asteroid template has a unique sense of humor.

(Image source: Leitech production)

In addition to post-editing adjustments, we can also choose the newly introduced Dynamic Tracking mode during pre-shooting. It allows selecting the lens pointing angle in the frame, including various fixed perspectives such as front, rear, top, bottom, etc., or selecting a tracking subject.

When the Insta360 X5 recognizes the current scene as a selfie, it will automatically lock onto the subject in front of the lens and keep it centered on the screen, making it ideal for sports scenarios such as skiing, travel photography, and riding.

Therefore, Xiao Lei hopes that Insta360 will introduce more intelligent direct output motion control modes like the Dynamic Tracking mode that require no post-processing in the future. A lower usage threshold will inevitably attract more user groups.

As a type of smart connected device, the usability of an action camera's app is also something Xiao Lei cares about very much. If only the product is good to use but the app experience is terrible, then Xiao Lei will find it hard to give it a high score.

Xiao Lei encountered several issues when using the Insta360 X3. For example, during the editing process, when Xiao Lei painstakingly cropped out the desired 10-second clip from a 40-minute video, the app often became unresponsive, and sometimes it would crash directly, greatly affecting his mood.

Secondly, perhaps because panorama video files are large, it takes more than ten seconds or even half a minute to buffer each time you enter video editing. If you drag the timeline too fast, buffering is required again. This back and forth completely wore out Xiao Lei's patience.

(Image source: Leitech production)

The newly "updated" Insta360 app along with the Insta360 X5 perfectly solves the pain points of previous app versions. It's worth mentioning that Insta360 has finally recognized how inefficient it is to edit clips using two fingers in the app. Now, it has been replaced with a single-finger drag editing method, significantly improving the experience.

LeTech Review Summary: A Highly Engaging Photographic Marvel

Finally, according to LeTech's review template, here is a brief summary of the Insta360 X5:

Advantages:

1. Excellent image quality, with significant improvements in night scene performance;

2. Greatly extended battery life;

3. More diverse supported shooting formats and gameplay;

4. The app has finally become user-friendly;

Disadvantages:

1. Relatively large size.

From camera usability design, image quality to software experience, the performance of the Insta360 X5 has seen a qualitative improvement compared to the previous generation. Although it may still have some imperfections, it has already reached the pinnacle of this category within the current technological constraints.

(Image source: LeTech Photography)

In retrospect, the price tag of 3798 yuan may seem steep, but when one considers the technological advancements and the enhanced user experience that the Insta360 X5 offers, this price point becomes highly competitive. After all, integrating such a plethora of professional features into a single device while maintaining portability and user-friendliness was previously unthinkable.

For outdoor sports enthusiasts, vloggers, and anyone who relishes capturing their surroundings through the lens, the Insta360 X5 remains an indispensable tool. Believe me, once you've experienced it, the awe-inspiring capabilities of this panoramic camera will leave a lasting impression.

Source: LeTech

The images used in this article are sourced from: 123RF Authentic Image Library. Source: LeTech