Insta360 GO 3S is here with 4K support (finally!)

In June last year, Insta360 launched a new action camera called the Insta360 GO 3. It became an immediate hit for vloggers thanks to its exceptionally small size, versatility, and ease of use, as well as its compatibility with both iPhones and the best Android phones. However, there were plenty of complaints, with the most prevalent being a lack of 4K support. The Insta360 Go 3 topped out at 2.7K at 30FPS.

Today, though, the company is unveiling the Insta360 GO 3S. As its name suggests, this is everything you love about the Insta360 GO 3, but slightly better. Most notably, it brings 4K support, which is probably the most requested feature by the community. Unfortunately, 4K support still tops off at 30FPS, which means you’ll need to wait until the next iteration for 60FPS support, maybe. To be clear, the action camera doesn’t support 60FPS in any shooting mode, not even 2.7K or 1080p.

We do get a nice bump in video bitrate, though. The Insta360 GO 3S records at 120Mbps in H.264, while the older model is stuck at 80Mbps. That’s still not as good as 60FPS, but it ain’t bad, either.

Thanks to 4K support, the camera hardware has changed a little bit. The aperture goes from ƒ2.2 on the GO 3 to ƒ2.8 on the GO 3S. This changes the focal length from 11mm to 16mm. Photo resolutions also change to 4,000 x 2,250 (16:9), 2,880 x 2,880 (1:1), 3,968 x 1,472 (2.7:1), and 4,000 x 3,000 (4:3).

Another welcome upgrade is the removal of the cumbersome INSP format for photos. With the Insta360 GO 3, your photos would save in INSP, and you’d need to use a companion app to convert them to JPG. The Insta360 GO 3S, though, shoots in JPG natively, saving you that step. It still supports DNG RAW images, though, so you’re not stuck with JPG if you want more flexibility with post-processing.

Finally, increases in video and imaging quality aren’t the only upgrades here. The base storage for this model is 64GB, which is nice because the 32GB Insta360 GO 3 was pretty silly, with 2.7K footage filling that up very quickly. Considering there is no microSD card slot on the GO 3 (or the GO 3S, unfortunately), the base storage increase is quite welcome. Top-level storage remains unchanged at 128GB. We also have Apple Find My support baked-in, waterproofing to 33 feet (compared to 16 feet on the older model), hand gesture control, and the ability to change the aspect ratio on the fly by simply twisting the camera into portrait or landscape modes.

That’s about it for the differences between the two models. Thankfully, even with all these upgrades, pricing stays the same. The standard bundle with 64GB of storage starts at $399 here in the US, $559 CAD in Canada, €399 in Europe, and £349 in the UK. Your two color options are Arctic White or Midnight Black. It’s available to buy now.