Insta360 makes what are widely considered the best 360 cameras on the market. But while the company has dabbled in the action-camera realm before, they were hybrid attempts that suffered from being "jacks of all trades, masters of none." This changes with the Insta360 Ace Pro, a dedicated action camera with some impressive hardware.

Along with the vastly improved and just-released DJI Pocket 3 and Ray-Ban Meta glasses, the vlogging camera market has suddenly improved by leaps and bounds. These cameras are closing in on the best smartphone cameras in terms of image quality.

About this review: This review was written after two weeks of testing an Insta360 Ace Pro provided by Insta360. The company did not have input in this article.

Pricing and availability

The Insta360 Ace Pro is available for purchase nearly worldwide at online and offline retailers. In the U.S., the Ace Pro is available on Amazon, B&H, and Insta360's website. Apple stores also carry Insta360 products, but the Ace Pro has not officially made its way there but will soon.

The Ace Pro is the higher tier of the two available models, and it's priced starting at $450 for the basic package which includes the camera, battery, basic mount, and charging cable. You must buy your own microSD card to use the camera. Multiple pricier variants are available that include more advanced mounts, a 128GB microSD memory card, and even an extra battery, but prices for those packages jump to $500 or more.

Hardware overview

Typical shape but with large sensor

The Insta360 Ace Pro is an action camera similar to the mold set by GoPro. It's basically a plasticky small rectangular box with an ultra-wide camera on the front and a flip screen on the back that can shoot stabilized video. This type of product was initially mostly used by adventurous types to capture hands-free video as the camera can be easily mounted on top of helmets, bicycle handlebars or various types of boards. But increasingly, it is also used for vlogging due to its compact size, light weight and great stabilization.

Action cameras are a dime a dozen these days, but the Ace Pro improves on the formula by using a 1/1.3-inch image sensor that's only matched by DJI's also recently launched Action 4. GoPro's best offering right now, the Hero 12 Black, only packs a 1/1.9-inch sensor. For cameras, the larger the sensor is generally better, as it can take in more light and details.

The Ace Pro also comes with the "co-engineered with Leica" branding, but unlike Xiaomi's Ultra phones, this camera does not have Leica lenses. Instead, Insta360 says Leica contributed to "optical engineering and fine-tuning color reproduction." Make of this what you will — personally, I am always skeptical about these partnerships between legacy European brands and upstart Chinese brands unless I see some real results/differences.

The 2.7-inch flip screen gets bright, and there are small speakers on the camera, which means it's possible to watch the video you've shot on device for preview purposes. There is no onboard storage, as the camera needs a microSD card to operate. The battery is removable and can shoot for about 90 minutes from my testing — provided you have enough space on the memory card.

The Insta360 Ace Pro's bottom does not have a quarter-inch screw mount, instead it has slots designed for Insta360's proprietary mounts (the quarter-inch screw mount is then placed on those mounts). I don't mind too much since Insta360 includes at least one mount in every package. I'll talk more about the mounts in the section below.

What I like

Great optics and software

Due to the larger sensor and the unnamed 5nm silicon handling increasingly mature software, the Insta360 Ace Pro produces footage that is much better than previous action cameras. As recently as last year, action camera footage had this grainy, flat look, and while Ace Pro videos still aren't as good as the best smartphone cameras, it looks much better, with excellent dynamic range and a bit more depth to photos and videos. The Ace Pro captures about 16mm focal length, which is wide enough that I can hold the camera with my extended arms and get enough of a wide framing for talking head-type vlog videos. Below is a collection of footage shot in all different types of lighting and conditions.

The Ace Pro can shoot videos up to 8K/24fps, but I shot mostly in 4K/30 or 4K/60, and the footage appears clean, sharp, vivid, well stabilized, and more surprisingly, with clear audio. Even in constantly noisy Hong Kong streets, I could film myself in walk-and-talk format and the audio is good enough to use. Insta360's software is clearly applying a background noise cancelation algorithm, and it works wonders.

Earlier I mentioned the camera doesn't have a 1/4-inch mount on the bottom, instead you have to attach a mount to get that widely used slot. Insta360 has designed a clever one: the mount attaches to the bottom via magnets, which itself is strong enough to keep the camera in place. But the mount also has four small nubs which go into four small grooves at the bottom of the Ace Pro. Once attached, you can even slide the switch to lock the nubs into place, adding further security. Insta360 says this mount option is better because it can be put on or taken off very fast, so users can quickly swap the camera from being on, say, a tripod, to a helmet mount, etc. I agree with Insta360, and since the mount is included with the package and doesn't add much bulk, I don't mind it at all.

As long as you have a memory card inserted, the camera can be used as a standalone device, and you can move files over by plugging the memory card into a computer. But Insta360 has a very intuitive companion app on iOS and Android that allows files to be transferred wirelessly. Below are images snapped by the Insta360 Ace Pro.

I've always thought Insta360's app is well-designed, with more features than others. This is more true than ever. The Insta360 app can now run in the background, so when I'm moving large files over, I can exit out of the app and do other things on the phone. Neither DJI nor GoPro's apps allow me to do that, requiring me to stay in the app while videos take minutes to transfer.

Insta360's apps also has a full editing suite that allows me to trim, cut, crop footage; apply filters (including beauty filters to faces); and even change aspect ratio. You do need to shoot in a specific mode to take advantage of the free aspect ratio change, but once you do, that clip can be cropped into widescreen or vertical videos on the app.

There are a whole myriad of shooting modes such as time-lapse, star trails, etc. But I mostly shot conventional 4K videos. I used the camera to vlog a day trip around Hong Kong in which I walked all over town. The ease of use and strong microphones and audio make it an easy vlog camera.

What I don't like

I had to really nitpick to find them

There really aren't a lot of things I don't like about the Ace Pro, but one is the much-advertised AI features that turn videos into animations. It requires connecting to the Insta360 app servers, and the process takes nearly two minutes. There are other minor nitpicks, like the protective lens cover for is not user removable. Insta360 said the decision was made to ensure waterproofing works. This means if you do damage the lens, you'd have to send it back to Insta360 to change.

I also think the Ace Pro has some overlap with the Insta360 Go 3, which is a modular action camera. The Go 3's image quality can't match the Ace Pro, but it's more versatile due to its modularity, and for most average users, the Go 3 is a more fun camera to use.

Should you buy the Insta360 Ace Pro?

You should buy the Ace Pro if:

• You want a rugged action camera that produces excellent image quality
• You vlog on the go often and want something more compact than a phone

You should not buy the Ace Pro if:

• You are not too picky about image quality and would rather have a lower-priced, more versatile camera like the Go 3
• You shoot mostly indoors in controlled environments — in that case, the DJI Pocket 3 is a better option.

The Insta360 Ace Pro is an excellent action camera that does everything it advertises very well. I recently reviewed the DJI Pocket 3 which I gave a glowing review, so it's natural to compare the two. While I think the DJI Pocket 3 produces even better video footage (it has a 1-inch sensor), its form factor is less rugged or durable. For example, the Pocket 3 isn't waterproof, and probably can't survive too many drops the way action cameras can. Therefore, if your vlogging involves outdoor activities in potentially wet environments, the Ace Pro is a safer option. However, if you're shooting content indoors or in an outdoor area that's less volatile (like a suburban street), then the Pocket 3 will be perfectly fine.