- This is Insta360's One R.

And yes it is a 360 degree camera,

but it's also a 4K action camera too.

So for someone who's on the fence

about buying a 360 degree camera,

this might be the perfect gateway.

Let's get into it.

But, oh, one more thing,

this is a pre-production model

which means that it's near final hardware,

but they're still tweaking the software.

So think of this as an extended hands on

rather than a full-fledged review.

Now let's get into it.

(upbeat music)

The Insta360 One R is made up of three components.

The core, which houses the screen, power,

and record buttons, USB-C port, and microSD card slot.

And then the battery base and the lens mods.

There are two ports on the core

that coincide with the prongs of the lens mods.

And the battery just snaps onto the bottom.

Once built it all feels really solid and compact.

As a unit the One R is waterproof up to five meters.

Now on my unit you'll notice there is a gap

between the battery grip and the rest of the camera.

Insta360 tells me that does not affect waterproofing.

Now in the final versions of this camera

that will be there at all.

They're getting rid of it for aesthetic reasons they say.

The One R also comes with a plastic housing for mounting

and there are two very familiar prongs

on the bottom of that which connect to

pretty much any amount you could possibly want.

Let's talk the 360 mod first.

Because it was by far my favorite to use.

It shoots 5.7K, up to 30FPS spherical video.

If you're coming from the 1X,

the footage on the One R looks almost identical.

They've really only updated nighttime stabilization

and then they've added HDR video.

But the real difference is having a screen

built right onto the camera.

It is a very lo-res screen at that,

but you can change frame rates, view playback,

and scroll around your frame.

If you double tap on the screen

it will change between lenses.

I found the screen to be extremely responsive.

It's biggest downfall though is its size.

I have small fingers so this wasn't a total dealbreaker

but I could see how someone with gloves

or anyone with bigger hands really

could find the small screen frustrating.

During my test I was switching between

the GoPro Max and the One R and going back to the GoPro Max

felt like a relief because the screen

is almost twice its size.

All right now this 4K sensor.

It's best quality is that the screen

can be both a rear facing screen

and a front facing screen.

Because you can just flip it around and put it back on.

It's kinda cool.

The 4K mod shoots at up to 60 frames per second in 4K

and up to 200 frames per second in 1080 P.

As a typical action camera it's fine.

If it didn't come with a 360 mod

this definitely would not be my first choice

for an action camera though.

First, I just prefer the color

that a GoPro puts out way more than a One R.

GoPro isn't afraid of the blacks and the shadows

and it will really let that pop

creating a nice contrasting image.

And second, flow state just isn't as good as hyper smooth.

You can really see it here in this clip of me running.

In the One R's frame look at the building on the left.

You can see it just jittering around.

Whereas in the GoPro keeps it extremely stable

all throughout the image.

I found myself using the 4K mod

mostly just to take photos though.

I found there was a lot of smoothing happening

especially in the backgrounds.

And Insta360 is evening out the low and high lights.

I also thought the auto mode was a bit slow

often leading to blurry subjects, even in daylight.

Overall the 4K mod is fine

but it's definitely not the star feature of the One R.

Insta360 is coming out with a 1 inch 5.3K

Leica branded sensor.

I mean that's huge for an action camera.

But we'll have to test it out and see how it holds up.

Honestly what people don't know

is that Vegas is actually beautiful.

I mean come on.

The audio is pretty crisp and it definitely

prioritizes voices over everything else.

You just have to be super cautious

of the sounds of say, extending the selfie stick

or hitting record on the camera.

Those are really loud.

The editing workflow really hasn't changed since the 1X.

The desktop app is still not intuitive

but it does have added Pro Rez and H265 export options.

And the app is still super easy to use

with a few added tricks.

There is Deep Track active tracking,

auto framing, and CineShots

which are like fun storytelling tools.

I was most impressed by the tracking though.

It really holds people or objects

right in the center of the frame

without having to lay keyframes.

And then the other big new feature

is being able to edit your footage

without having to first download it onto your phone.

You can use Deep Track and set keyframes

all without having to wait for the file to download.

It's all super snappy with no noticeable lag

and it didn't kill the cameras battery in the process.

The One R's battery is right on par with the 1X.

You can definitely get a full day out of it

if you're careful to shut it down

when you're not using it.

But the One R also supports fast charging.

So if you do get low you can use a two amp charger

and charge it up to 80% in just 30 minutes.

I'll take that.

The twin addition of Insta360's One R

is on sale today starting at $480 US dollars.

And it comes with one core, one battery,

a 360 camera mod, and a 4K camera mod.

And then the one inch addition which will be coming out

hopefully later this spring

will retail for $550 US dollars.

So that's Insta360's One R.

I mean for someone who's curious about 360

but not sure they're ready to take the leap

into having two lenses constantly sticking off their camera,

well this might be the perfect form factor for you.

Let's just see if it's as durable as, well, it feels.

Keep it locked to The Verge.

That's all I gotta say about that.

I'm a go climb a rock, this one right here.

Actually, oh shoot, oh shoot,

oh, it's been a long week

and it hasn't even started (laughs).

Okay I'm getting down.