360 Camera News and Info

Insta360 Air update unlocks 3K mode for more Android phones

The latest update to Insta360 Air added 3K mode not just for high-end smartphones as originally promised, but apparently for more, if not most, compatible Android phones.  Compare the samples!

Insta360 Air is a 360 camera accessory for Android phones.  When it was first announced, Insta360 said that it would have a resolution of 2560 x 1280, but that high-end phones such as the Huawei P9 or Samsung S7 would have a higher 3008 x 1504 video resolution.

A couple of weeks ago, Insta360 released version 1.4 of their app to add 3K mode, although the exported videos seemed to be missing 360 metadata.  Version 1.4.2 of the app, released last week, fixed the 360 metadata and in addition, unlocked 3K mode for more Android phones, if not most of them.

Here is a sample 3K video from the Insta360 Air on a Samsung S8 plus:

Here is a sample 3K video with the Air, this time on a Samsung S6, which was not originally among the phones that was specified as being capable of shooting in 3K on the Insta360 Air:

The samples show that the 3K video on the older S6 is indeed the same resolution as the 3K video from the S8.  However, the S6’s framerate is much lower at 3K compared to that of the S8.  I don’t know exactly what the frame rate is, but I estimate it to be perhaps 15 fps.  Personally I would prefer to use the conventional 2560 x 1280 mode on the S6, but at least there’s an option to use 3K.

Insta360 Air for Android is available here (either for Micro USB or USB Type C).

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Mic Ty

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  • Thank you for sharing very thorough and extensive information on Insta360 Air over various websites. I just bought it last week (October 2019), and
    -960p worked on Samsung Galaxy S4 (SGH-I337M) Android 5.0.1, but not 3k.
    -3k mode worked (but slow) on my another Samsung Galaxy A8 Duos 2015 (SM-A800F) Android 6.0.1