Insta360 X4 vs X5 Review: Which 360° Camera Is the Best for Creators?
- gear4greatness
- Mar 16, 2025
- 6 min read
Updated: Nov 17, 2025
Insta360 X4 vs X5 Review: Which 360° Camera Is the Best for Creators?
I still remember the first time I took the Insta360 X4 out on a cold Winnipeg morning. The sun was low, that soft winter haze was drifting over the river, and the icy air stung a little as I walked toward the trail. 🎥❄️ Back then, the X4 felt like something special — that big bright screen lighting up in the cold, the 8K 360° footage wrapping around me like the whole world was finally inside the camera. I filmed everything with it: the snowy trails, the tight turns near The Forks, my slow walk downtown on those icy sidewalks where the world felt muffled except for the crunch of the snow under my boots. And for a long time, I thought, “This is as good as 360 cameras get.” The X4 became part of me — part of my outings, part of my bike rides, part of my winter experiments. It had that rugged feel, those chunky lens guards, that solid battery life you could trust even when the temperature dropped.
Then the X5 came along. And everything changed. ✨I didn’t think I needed another 360 camera — until I held it. The first thing that hit me was the screen. Bigger. Brighter. Sharper. When I touched it for the first time, it felt like Insta360 had finally understood what creators really needed outdoors. I took it to the same ice trail where I’d filmed with the X4 dozens of times, and the screen alone made me feel like I’d upgraded not just my gear, but the entire way I interacted with it. The colors felt richer, the touches more responsive, the overall design slimmer, more thoughtful. It still felt like a sibling to the X4, but the X5 had that polished edge — the same way you feel when you switch from a tool you like to one you instantly trust.
I noticed right away how much smoother the whole workflow felt. With the X4, transferring big files was fine — reliable, predictable — but with the X5, it felt faster and more fluid, almost like the camera was moving ahead of me. I’d shoot a snowy bike ride across Provencher Bridge, come home with frozen hands, and the files would offload quicker than the time it took for me to peel off my winter layers. The 8K60 footage actually surprised me. When I first heard it could do 60 frames per second in 8K, I rolled my eyes a bit, thinking it was just another spec to brag about, but the moment I dropped it into Insta360 Studio and started reframing, I felt the difference in every single motion. Everything looked cleaner, the movement thicker with detail, almost buttery. The X4’s 8K still holds its own — honestly, it’s still fantastic — but the X5’s combination of sharpness, motion, and color made me lean in closer to the screen, the way you do when something feels genuinely new.
And the low-light difference hit me more than I expected. Indoors, where the X4 sometimes struggled with noise in shadowed corners, the X5 seemed to breathe easier. That mattered to me, because not every creator moment happens in perfect light. Sometimes I’m filming a late-night desk setup, or capturing a quiet moment in the living room with Mongo wandering around, or experimenting with different kinds of ambient light just to see what the camera does. The X5 just handled it better. Smoother tones, cleaner shadows, a little extra dynamic range where it mattered. 🌄✨
But owning both cameras also made me face their quirks. The X4 still has those bulky lens guards — good protection, just not subtle. The file sizes are big on both, bigger on the X5, and if you’re not ready for that, you’ll run out of storage fast. Editing 360 still isn’t something you do half-asleep; you have to want to put the work in. And on the X5, the lack of ND filters still bugs me. You know how I am with ND filters — motion blur is part of storytelling for me — so when Insta360 released the X5 with no ND options, it made me feel like something was missing. But even with those frustrations, both cameras stayed with me because the footage they capture is unlike anything else. When you nail a 360 shot — that perfect arc on a bike turn, that smooth walk through downtown, that sunrise glow wrapping behind you — it reminds you why you put up with the quirks.
And honestly, the thing I liked most about using both cameras was how each had its own personality. The X4 feels rugged, dependable, the camera you take out when you know the world might throw something at you. The X5 feels like the refined one — smarter, smoother, more ambitious. When I think of creators who want their first 360 camera, the X4 still makes sense. When I think of someone who’s already hooked on 360 and wants the cleanest, smoothest shots with the most editing room, the X5 wins every time. And using them back to back on the same trails, in the same cold, on the same bike rides made the differences so clear I didn’t have to look at a spec sheet. The cameras showed me themselves.
🌄 FINAL THOUGHTS
I still feel something when I look at the side-by-side footage from the X4 and X5 — like I’m seeing two versions of myself from different seasons of my creative life. The X4 reminds me of those earlier winter mornings when everything felt fresh and experimental and I was still figuring out how 360 fit into my style. The X5 feels like the next chapter — smoother, brighter, more confident — like it nudged me forward just enough to make my footage feel alive again. 🎥💭✨
Using both cameras taught me how much gear can shape the mood of a moment. The X4 felt like the camera you take when you're ready to explore, even if it's rough outside. The X5 feels like the one you take when you're ready to elevate what you already know — when you're ready to take the same path but capture it in a way that feels more intentional, more cinematic, more like the memory you actually carried home. These cameras didn’t make me a better creator; they made me more aware of the small details — the way snow reflects gold under a streetlight, the way wind bends light around the frame, the way movement becomes storytelling when the camera keeps up with you.
And symbolically, the X4 and X5 almost feel like two bridges I crossed without even realizing it. The X4 was the bridge into 360, where everything was new and wide and exciting. The X5 is the bridge into refinement, where the same world looks different because the tools let you see deeper into it. Each time I mount one of these cameras to my bike or step onto the ice trail with it in my pocket, I’m reminded that the real magic isn’t in the tech — it’s in the way these little devices push me to look at familiar places with new eyes. 🌄🚲✨
And maybe that’s why I keep filming with the X5 now. It feels like the camera that doesn’t just capture scenes — it keeps up with the way my mind sees movement, light, and memory.
Insta360 X4 vs X5 Review: Which 360° Camera Is the Best for Creators?
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✅ Final Verdict: X4 or X5?
💥 My rating:
📷 X4: 8.5/10 – Still a fantastic buy in 2025 if you want pro 360° performance on a slightly lower budget.📷 X5: 9.5/10 – The new gold standard for creators who want the very best.
The Insta360 X4 continues to be one of the smartest value choices for creators, packing pro-level quality at a more accessible price. But if your goal is the sharpest, smoothest, and most future-proof 360° camera available today, the X5 is the clear winner.
Whichever you choose, both cameras unlock creative possibilities you simply won’t get with traditional action cams — giving you the freedom to tell stories from every angle.
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