Insta360 launched the X6 on August 12, and the pitch is the imaging area. The company’s dual custom Sony square sensors are sold as delivering the equivalent of a 1-inch sensor when you shoot 360, which would be the largest imaging surface anyone has put in a pocketable 360 camera. Every other headline feature on the launch page follows from that premise.
Where a shooting day gets shorter
Offloading is the tax nobody mentions with 360 cameras (because the fun doesn’t start until the files are off the camera). However, redditor gshaw1967 put the X6 through its paces and clocked file transfers at up to 32 MB/s, vs. 17 MB/s on his X5. Both cameras were still climbing when he stopped the test. A full card could take half as long to dump, which matters when you’re trying to get out the door instead of watching a progress bar.
The scale is worth picturing. One 120 MP panoramic still off the X6 came in at 59 MB in that session, and a 360 clip at the new 8K 50 FPS setting dwarfs a photo. Anyone who backs footage up to Insta360’s cloud between shoots will feel the faster radio every single day of a trip.
The 1-inch claim needs a dark room to prove itself
Insta360’s own footnote takes some air out of the 1-inch claim, admitting that the figure refers to the imaging area in 360 mode, not a 1-inch sensor. The actual diagonal comes in at about 14.5 mm, well short of the 25.4 mm associated with a true 1-inch measurement.
Out of the box, gshaw1967 couldn’t see the upgrade at all, describing the X5 and X6 as producing very similar-looking video in his early tests. He also noted the camera shipped on pre-release firmware with a large update waiting on day one. My guess is the gap opens after dark in PureVideo mode, which means the reason to buy an X6 today doesn’t exist on any card you can shoot yet.
A smaller camera you can see less of yourself on
The X6 is small enough that gshaw1967 said photos undersell it, and the screen paid the bill for that. Running both cameras together, he could frame himself from head to knees on the X5‘s display and only from head to just above the waist on the X6’s smaller one. The same body, the same arm’s length, a third of him missing from the check.
The screen changes how much you trust the shot. Holding a 360 camera out on an invisible selfie stick, the preview is your only check that you’ve framed yourself properly. With the X6, gshaw1967 could see himself only from the head to just above the waist, so his legs were already out of the picture before he even hit the shutter. He ended up preferring the X5’s larger view, which is a pretty awkward thing for a newer flagship to get wrong.
Charging speed beats the runtime figure
Insta360 quotes 140 minutes of 8K/30 FPS recording, but I wouldn’t recommend planning your entire shoot around that headline number. The useful figure is 24 minutes to 80% on a fast charger. gshaw1967 got a full charge in about 20 minutes vs. 30 for the X5, which is the kind of upgrade you notice when you’re standing in a coffee shop with a dead camera.
Battery life tells a less glamorous story, with gshaw1967’s X6 at 79% after 25 minutes of recording vs. 74% on the X5. Five points won’t matter much on a normal shoot, but I wouldn’t want to count on them when I’m filming in the cold.
Grigor Baklajyan is a copywriter covering technology at Gadget Flow. His contributions include product reviews, buying guides, how-to articles, and more.
