Insta360 X4 Air 360 Camera Review: Tinier Planets

The $400 Insta360 X4 Air is a lightweight 360 camera that slots between the flagship X5 and the older, but still capable, X4. It features larger image sensors than the X4 and, more importantly, replaceable lenses like the X5. It’s a little smaller and lighter overall as well. Eventually, it will replace the X4 in Insta360’s lineup (you can still find the X4). 

Performance is good and exactly what you’d expect for something in between those two cameras. It’s not quite as good as the X5, but it’s a little better than the X4. The price reflects that as well. The X5 is better at night and in low-light situations, but during the day, the image quality between the two is quite similar.

If the smaller size and medium price appeal to you, the X4 Air is a great camera. Beginners might be better off with the GoPro Max 2, but if the X5 is too expensive and you want something a little better and smaller than the X4, the Air is it. 

Specs and hardware

If you’ve used any Insta360 camera from the last few years, the X4 Air will be immediately familiar. A large touchscreen lets you swipe and tap through different modes and settings. On the side are power and mode buttons. A single shutter button sits below the screen. 

Insta360’s marketing leans heavily on the size and weight of the Air, and in fairness, it is reasonably small and light… but only slightly. It weighs 17.5% less than the flagship X5, is roughly the same width and depth, but 0.4 inch (10.7mm) shorter. So smaller, yes, but not by that much. If you hold them in your hands, they don’t feel that different. Any amount smaller or lighter can be helpful in a variety of situations, just keep in mind it’s not a huge difference.

The biggest changes from the X4 are new image sensors and lenses. The 1/1.8-inch sensors are slightly larger than the X4’s 1/2-inch ones, but smaller than the X5’s 1/1.28. You’ll find that’s the name of the game with the X4 Air, a step between the X4 and the X5. The lenses are slightly slower than the X4’s f1.95 versus f1.9. That difference is likely offset in most situations by the slightly larger sensor, but regardless, the X4 Air’s low-light performance isn’t great. The X5’s low-light performance is way better. More importantly, the lenses are user-replaceable, which they weren’t on the X4 but are on the X5. 

This new sensor has different resolutions and frame rates, however. All three cameras can do 8K resolution at 30 frames per second. The next step down in resolution on the X5 and X4 is 5.7K at 60fps. This is the mode I typically use, as the higher frame rate and the active HDR video possible in this mode tend to look better on social media. The X4 Air, on the other hand, records 6K50. So slightly higher resolution but a lower frame rate. It’s still capable of HDR but only at 6K30. I doubt most people would notice the difference, but personally, I think most videos would benefit from the extra dynamic range of HDR and a higher frame rate than a small increase in resolution, which is likely only noticeable on a spec sheet. 

Photos, too, are a little different. The X5 and X4 have a 72-megapixel mode (11,904×5,952 pixels). This mode, while detailed, doesn’t look quite as good overall as the lower resolution, more phone-editing-friendly 18-megapixel (5,888×2,944) mode. The X4 Air splits the difference with a single, 29-megapixel (7,680×3,840) mode. Since the app still lets you create animated photos with this resolution, which many phones couldn’t do with the 72-megapixel images, this is probably an upgrade for most people in most situations. However, the camera lags noticeably when saving a photo after you take it. So, if you’re trying to capture a bunch of moments in a row, you’ll be frustrated as you’ll need to wait for the camera to save the image before you can do anything.

The Insta360 app, available for mobile and desktop, still remains a powerful tool to make creative and professional-looking videos. With great power comes a great learning curve, however. The mobile app is quite complex and will take most people a few tries to get the results they want. There’s more you can do with the app compared to GoPro’s Quik, but that app is easier to use since there’s less you can do. If you want to leave your edits in the hands of the clankers, the Insta360 app has numerous AI-enabled auto-editing features. 

Usability and photo quality

There aren’t any significant changes with the X4 Air compared to the X5 or X4 on the usability front. The convenient InstaFrame mode is here, which records both a 360 video and a 16:9 or 9:16 video at the same time to speed up the editing process. There’s also StarLapse to capture star trail photos and videos, TimeShift for fast movement while you’re walking around and so on. One thing that’s missing is the X5’s PureVideo mode that helps boost low-light videos. How much this mode would help with the X4’s low-light performance is hard to say. 

Like the previous cameras, you can switch to single-lens mode and use the X4 Air just like a regular camera. In this mode, videos top out at 4K30, and photos are 14.8-megapixel (3,840×3,848). Image quality will look fairly similar to that of many modern phones, though the better of those tend to have more computational photography tricks that improve apparent sharpness and contrast. Either option will look fine on social media, though the X4 Air has a much wider field of view, which can either be a good thing or a bad thing depending on what you’re shooting.

For the most part, the image quality between the X4 Air and X5 is decidedly similar, at least during the day (more on that in a moment). With the stock settings, colors are very vibrant. Blues and greens tend to be lighter shades compared to what you’d get with a GoPro like the Max 2. GoPro images also tend to be more contrasty, while Insta360’s are flatter. Neither is wrong per se, but subjectively, GoPro’s images tend to look a little better to my eye, at least directly out of the camera.

The biggest difference in image quality is in low-light situations. The X5’s videos are significantly brighter. The larger image sensors are able to capture more light. The X4’s low-light videos are barely usable and far darker. If you plan on recording a lot indoors or at night, it’s definitely worth spending more on the X5. 

Call it the X4.5

At first glance, the X4 Air is confusing. It squeezes its way in between the X4 and X5 — both great 360 cameras. It’s a little worse, but cheaper, than the X5, and a little better, but more expensive, than the X4. It will eventually replace the latter in Insta360’s lineup, so it’s logical to consider this the X4.5. 

The question is whether you should buy it. If you have the X5 or X4, no. I don’t think it’s enough of a change from the X4 to justify spending the money on the Air. If you have the X5 and find the idea of an ever-so-slightly smaller, lighter camera appealing, I’d recommend trying to find the X4 Air in a store and seeing how much “smaller” it actually is.

If you’re looking to get a new 360 camera, or have an older (pre-X3 or the original GoPro Max) camera, and you’re trying to decide between these three Insta360s and the GoPro Max 2, that’s a difficult question with a necessarily nuanced answer. Again, the Air slots between the X4 and X5, so if you want something a little better than the X4 but don’t want to spend on the X5, well, here’s your camera. The small differences between the X4 and the Air aren’t huge, though, and if you can find the X4 greatly discounted, I’d say just get the X4. 

The smaller size of the Air is nice, though, as is the lighter weight. I suppose if you’re counting every gram of your kit, the 35-gram difference is noteworthy. For most people, though, that’s barely noticeable. The other cameras are still easy to manage, even at the end of a selfie stick, which is when you’ll notice the weight the most.

There is, however, one issue you may run into with the X4 Air: availability. Like several recent cameras and many other goods, there’s an indefinite delay with US availability. Insta360 isn’t saying why, but my guess is it rhymes with riffs, sniffs and tiffs. Some of the recent products that have fallen victim to similar unspecified delays have popped up on Amazon. This gray market may or may not be supported by Insta360 if you have an issue with the camera. At the moment, it doesn’t appear to be an issue for the X4 Air, but it’s something to be aware of. 

The 360 camera category has a lot of great options now, and while the X4 Air isn’t particularly revolutionary or even evolutionary, it does offer something a little different while doing so in a smaller package. Hopefully, whatever is keeping it from being widely available in the US will resolve itself soon.