- Insta360 has released a new teaser for a launch event on April 22
- It has the tagline “all day, all night, all angles” and hints at a new 360 camera
- Recent leaks suggest it’s preparing to launch the Insta360 X5
Insta360 has long topped our guide to the best 360 cameras – and a new teaser suggests it’s preparing to launch a new flagship model. Fortunately, some recent leaks have also given us an idea of what to expect, with a successor to last year’s Insta360 X4 looking highly likely.
The X4 was only launched a year ago in April 2024, but a promo image for Insta360’s event on April 22 suggests it’ll be replaced next week. The image (below), which has the tagline “all day, all night, all angles”, shows the reflection of a camera that very much looks like an X4.
We’ve also recently seen some leaks that point to the arrival of an Insta360 X5 on April 22. The reliable @Quadro_Newshas posted two leaked images for an X5, and the 360 camera also appears to have been prematurely posted in an ad in the Best Buy app.
WIN our next camera 👇 All day. All night. All angles.1️⃣ Follow @insta3602️⃣ Like & repost (1000+ reposts and we’ll give away TWO!)3️⃣ Reply with the #1 activity you’d film with the cameraWinner on April 22 🤞*Do not attempt to replicate–smashing a camera may damage it. pic.twitter.com/vvElzEFvW0April 16, 2025
So what can we expect from the Insta360 X5? The leaks so far don’t give much away, other than hinting at a mild redesign of the pill-shaped camera and potentially a bigger battery to boost its recording times.
Insta360’s teaser video is also light on details, mainly focusing on some of the impressive creative video effects that are the series’ hallmark. Our Insta360 X4 review also gave the current model five stars, suggesting that there’s little room for improvement.
The @insta360 X5 has gotten a nice upgrade. Let’s see how the DJI 360 stacks up against it. Not much time left before the show,)#insta360 #insta360x5 pic.twitter.com/nZEz3HNWbuApril 15, 2025
But with Insta360 looking to extend its lead over GoPro (which still hasn’t launched its GoPro Max 2) and DJI, which is tipped to be launching a DJI Osmo 360 camera this year, there are definitely some new features it could squeeze into its flagship camera.
So, here are five things we’d like to see from the rumored Insta360 X5…
Insta360 X5: what I’d like to see
1. Better low-light performance
Like most 360 cameras, one of the Insta360 X4’s biggest weaknesses is low-light performance. It’s still very much a day-time camera, but Insta360’s teaser – with the tagline “all day, all night, all angles” – suggests its new model could improve this.
The low-light weakness comes from a combination of sensor size and processing. Our X4 review noted that, while low-light images look “fairly clean” after being processed with Insta360’s mobile and desktop editors, they were also “a little smudgy as a result of noise reduction”.
Hopefully, a combination of improved processing and a larger sensor (see below) will make the rumored X5 a more versatile camera that can be confidently used outside of bright daylight.
2. Larger sensors
The challenge for 360 cameras is that they need to house two image sensors, while remaining pocketable and travel-friendly. The Insta360 X4 combines two 1/2-inch sensors, which are decent but still something of a bottleneck on image quality – hence the inclusion of an HDR video option to improve detail in highlights and shadows.
While I’m not expecting the X5 to go quite as far as the Insta360 One RS 1-Inch 360 Edition and jump to a 1-inch sensor, it’d be nice to see it upgraded to 1/1.3-inch sensors (the same size as the ones we recently saw on the Insta360 Ace Pro 2).
That would help improve dynamic range, low-light shooting and straight-out-of-camera image quality. It could also help the X5 match the incoming DJI Osmo 360, which has been rumored to be going straight in with 1/1.3-inch sensors.
It sounds like some long-awaited competition in the 360 camera space could be good news for us…
3. Better heat dissipation
While not a big issue in most recording modes, we did find that the X4 has a propensity to get warm quickly – particularly in those demanding high-resolution video modes.
The obvious way to prevent this is to avoid shooting static, long-form 8K videos, but it’d be good to see the rumored X5 take a step forward in heat management.
This is less of an issue when shooting action, as there’s some natural airflow to cool the camera down in those scenarios – but a reduction in overheating during stationary recording would again make for a more versatile 360 camera.
4. Replaceable lenses
We don’t have many qualms about the Insta360 X4’s build quality. Our review called it “superb” in this department and the camera is fully waterproof to 33ft / 10m, with all of its ports rubber-sealed and some handy color-coding inside the catch letting you quickly check to make sure everything’s locked.
But one upgrade that would be useful is user-replaceable lenses. While it’s possible to do this with third-party kits, it certainly isn’t straightforward and sending your camera in for repair is usually the best bet for deep scratches.
It’d be good to see the rumored X5 offer something like GoPro’s swappable lenses system. That may be difficult to achieve on a 360 camera, even if it is hinted at in Insta360’s teaser video, where a workman smashes the camera with a hammer.
5. The same price tag
The Insta360 X4 isn’t exactly cheap at $499/ £499 / AU$879, but it is probably the most fun camera you can buy for that money. We also thought that was a fair price at the time of the X4’s launch, because it was only a 10% markup from the X2 – a camera that launched back in 2022.
Because Insta360 is based in China, there’s a danger that the recent US tariffs could meddle with this pricing. But we’re hoping that isn’t the case and that the X5 (if it does indeed launch on April 22) comes in at a similar price to its predecessor, outside of the US at least.
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mark.wilson@futurenet.com (Mark Wilson)
