Insta360 X5: 5 Features We Hope to See

The Insta360 X4 is a highly capable 360 action camera, used by professionals and amateurs alike. It’s hard to think of means by which the company could improve upon the design: with 8K footage, an ultra-lightweight design and AI-powered editing capabilities; the X4 is a comprehensive package. But if you ever catch yourself thinking that a product is “perfect”, you’ll almost always be proven wrong.

Though the X5 is but a speculative concept at present, we’re already looking to the future to see what we’d want from this action camera successor. With new products from DJI and GoPro joining the market this year, here’s what we hope Insta360 has in store for the future.

An Improved Sensor

This is generally the first port-of-call in any camera upgrade. The X4’s 0.5” sensor is capable of approximating 72MP worth of detail in its 360-degree view, or 18MP in directional modes. That’s an impressive resolution already, so we think what should be improved is more the size of the sensor. Upping the physical size of the sensor to 1” would enhance the light-reading performance of this impressive sensor, and potentially have major boosts to resolution. The X3 and X4 both shared the same sensor, so we think it’s due an upgrade.

Improved Audio Quality

Though action cameras pack a lot into a small package, one of the pitfalls across the entire market seems to be audio quality. The latest GoPro Hero models have made improvements to the audio quality, and we’d like to see something similar in the Insta360 X5. The X4 has voice control features, which require a decent enough microphone, but we think there’s room for more. With AI-based background noise reduction coming as standard with most smartphones, with the new iPhone 16 offering smart audio capture technology, we wonder if we could see similar to the X5.

Better Lens Protection

The X4 was a major step forward in lens longevity by adding removable lens guards. Effectively equivalent to the UV filter on a camera lens, these added that extra degree of protection - though the lenses are still quite fragile as it stands. Due to their rounded shape protruding from the camera body itself, it is much easier to scuff or scratch the surface - any replacing the lenses is both costly and complicated. Obviously there are limited options for a 360 camera to protect its lens without sacrificing the image, but we’re hoping Insta360 can innovate a solution.

GPS Tracking

We hailed the GoPro Hero 13 for bringing back location tracking, as it had been conspicuously absent from the Hero 12. It’s also missing from Insta360’s cameras, and we’d hope to remedy that. Though it seems facile at first, half the fun of action cameras is capturing great moments out in the wild: whether hiking on a trail or kayaking across a lake. But having a record of the place you actually took the images in question is a prized feature in even the most outmoded of smartphones - and it is sorely lacking in the Insta360 X5. It’s one thing to capture an epic landscape, it’s another to log exactly where in that epic landscape you were as you did.

Better Battery Life

As we started our wishlist with the most common upgrade, we close it out with another: one that works in tandem with the overall efficiency of our hypothetical Insta360 X5. Battery life is always improving, as technology becomes more efficient and more accommodating, so we can expect a not-insubstantial battery life improvement. But alongside that, we’d hope for a better heatsink, too. These cameras are prone to overheating when used in a prolonged period, and it can seriously mitigate the lifespan of the devices. The aforementioned Hero 13 from GoPro has been redesigned for a more accommodating heatsink, which highlights how pertinent the issue is. We can hope that the X5 promises similar improvements.