Insta360 X5 vs X4

The specification table

Why the lens question dominates everything else

A 360 camera works by pointing two hemispherical lenses in opposite directions and stitching the results together. That design means the glass bulges outward, unprotected, on both sides — there is no flat recessed front element the way there is on a conventional action camera. It is the format's defining compromise and it is the reason most dead 360 cameras are dead.

Sand does it. A rock on a riverbank does it. Reef does it. So does setting the camera down lens-first on a gravel path once, which is the version that catches most people. And a scratch on a 360 lens is worse than a scratch on a flat camera, because the stitch line runs through the middle of the frame — damage shows up as a smear that no software removes and that sits in every single shot.

On the X4, a deep scratch is a service job: the lenses are not user-replaceable, so you are looking at sending it away or living with it. On the X5, the lenses are a part you unscrew and replace at the kitchen table. Same failure, entirely different outcome.

Which is why the honest version of this comparison is a question about your habits, not your budget. If this camera is going to spend its life on a kayak deck, in salt water or on a beach, the X5 is cheaper over three seasons even though it costs more today. If it is going to live on a handlebar on dry trail and come home in a case, the X4's lens guards are genuinely adequate and the X5's advantage is theoretical.

The 5 meters of depth, in practice

15m against 10m sounds like a specification argument and is mostly a margin argument. Almost nobody snorkels at 12 meters. What the extra 5m actually buys is slack: a depth rating describes a new camera with clean, correctly closed seals in still water, and it makes no promise about a three-season-old gasket or the pressure spike of being thrown into a wave. Being rated to 15m and used at 4m means the rating is nowhere near the limit, which is the right place for it to be. The full argument is on how deep an action camera can actually go.

One asymmetry worth knowing: Insta360 publishes a 50m figure for the X4's Invisible Dive Case and does not publish an equivalent for an X5 case. If you specifically plan to dive with a 360 camera, check current case availability for the body you are buying before you commit, because on published figures today the X4 is the one with a documented deep-water route.

What is the same, and it is most of the camera

Both bodies capture 8K30 360 video. Both do the invisible selfie stick trick, which is the actual reason anyone buys one of these: the pole disappears from the footage, so you get a floating third-person shot of yourself paddling, riding or walking with nobody holding a camera. Both let you point the camera at nothing and choose the angle afterwards, which is the capability that has no equivalent on a flat camera.

Both also charge you the same tax for it. Every clip needs a reframing pass before another person can watch it, the files are large, and the edit is slower than flat footage. That is the real trade in owning a 360 camera and it does not change between these two models — if you have not decided whether you want to pay it, read 360 camera vs action camera before you pick between X5 and X4.

Battery, read carefully

The published numbers are not directly comparable and it is worth saying why. Insta360 quotes roughly 88 minutes at 8K30 for the X5 and 185 minutes in Endurance mode at 5.7K24; the X4 is quoted at 135 minutes at 5.7K30. Those are three different settings, so the useful reading is: both last a normal day of clips, neither lasts a day of continuous 8K, and the X5 has the larger cell and the explicit low-power mode.

In cold weather both will come in under their figures, as everything does. If that is your use case, the same rules apply as anywhere else — see action camera battery life compared.

Which one we would actually buy

For this site's buyer — lake, kayak, paddleboard, coast — the X5, without much hesitation. The use case is wet, gritty and hard on exposed glass, and both of the X5's advantages point precisely at that. It is the body we rank first on the best 360 cameras for kayaking.

For a trail rider, a skier or anyone whose 360 camera lives on a helmet and comes home in a bag, the X4 is the better value and the compromise is one you will probably never meet. It is still the camera on the 360 mountain biking page worth considering on price.