Insta360 GO 2 Tiny Action Cam In-Depth Video Review

There’s a new winner in town for the smallest action camera. Or at least, the smallest action camera from a brand name you’ve probably heard of. While Insta360 has a more pronounced history in the 360° action cam market, over the last few years they’ve begun to shift more and more efforts into single-lens non-360 cameras. And today’s announcement doubles-down on their previous tiny camera with an equally small camera but now packed with more specs.

The case will remind you of an AirPods case, whereby the camera here can pop out and be used without the case. It’ll still connect to your phone though and stream a video preview if you want. Or, you can use the case as a remote control. Though, as one might expect, the size means a significantly reduced battery for the camera – just about 30 minutes. Whereas the case can top it up another 150 minutes (2.5 hours), allowing you to semi-constantly keep it charged. You can use the camera in the case though, which is frankly easier to hold anyway.

Now, like last week’s DJI FPV review, this review will be video-focused, since…well…it’s a video camera. Also, that tends to be where that kind of content does better for me. Plus, it frees me up to go out and finish up my SRM X MTB testing for my review in the coming day or so….among other endurance sports tech.

So, if you’re looking for details on that camera, or…on how to do action camera sizing via Haribo, hit up the play button above. Within it, I’ve divided it up into nine core sections, which you can find using the YouTube chapters option at the bottom of the video, they are:

0:00 Intro & Pricing
1:05 The Size & Comparisons
2:13 The Case Features
4:35 Video Modes, Stabilization, and Footage
7:22 Mounting Trials and Tribulations
10:19 The Apps (Desktop and phone)
11:24 Battery Life
11:52 Connectivity
12:07 Waterproofing
12:49 What I love & hate (5 of each)
15:30 Wrap-up

Still, here’s some quick specs for ya:

Video Resolution: 1440p at 50fps & 30fps, and 1080p for 120fps
Sensor size & Aperture: 1/2.3” @ F/2.2
Stabilization: Great in Pro mode, horrible in non-Pro mode
Video modes: Normal/Pro/HDR/Timelapse/HyperLapse/SlowMo
Storage: 32GB internally (no option to add)
Battery life: 30mins in camera, 150mins in case
Photo mode: 1920x1088px via INSP or DNG (that’s pretty low res)
Weight: Camera 26.5g and Case 63.5g
Waterproofing: Camera to 13ft/4m, but not case
Price: $299USD/319EUR

Oh, and if you want some sample footage to toy with, I’ve uploaded a small collection to this file share. You can use the Insta360 Studio app to tweak the pro mode raw clips.

With that, I’m off onto my bike to get perhaps one last power meter data set. Enjoy the above video, and catch ya tomorrow!

Thanks for reading…err…watching!

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26 Comments

  1. O.

    SRM X-Power review! Been *so* waiting for that puppy to drop. Thanks for getting it ready for publication!

    • Yup, just want to get one more MTB ride in. Though, getting tight on time now before kids pickup, so going to knock out trainer ride and do last MTB ride early tomorrow morning side (since I have to commute quite a ways there).

  2. Ben Lee

    I own the Insta360 Go. It looks like for the Go 2, they have not fixed some of the things that I hated.
    The recording button is still difficult to use and the tactile feedback isn’t intuitive. I have no idea which mode is the camera recording in or whether it has started recording at all (same experience as Ray). Most of my footage begin with shots of me peering at the recording light.

    There was a limitation on the duration of video clips that can be shot. Wonder if it has been improved. It also heats up after prolonged recording, hope that has been fixed.

    On the point about the pendant, I actually use it quite a fair bit when cycling on roads. Never had it fall off once. The only problem though is that you wouldn’t want to use it with loose fitting clothing because when the clothing flaps around, so would your footage. A tight fitting cycling jersey works just fine.

    Its an ok action camera for $199. But where it really shines imo is a camera that you would want to stick on your fpv drone. $299 is just too much, considering that they haven’t addressed my main pain points.

    • Limitations are still there:

      Pro Video mode (FlowState stabilization): 10 mins
      Video mode (Basic stabilization): 15 mins
      FPV mode: 30 mins
      Timelapse: Adjustable interval, record up to 110 minutes with the Charge Case for a 7-minute clip

      I ran into the video one once while mountain biking, though, didn’t realize it till reading the spec sheet later.

    • I agree on the pendant. I’ve worn it with a jersey and every with a jersey plus a very thin shell. It hasn’t fallen off on long road rides, cobblestones, or light gravel. It’s one of my favorite features of the camera, I rarely use any other mount. If I’m going to bother with a big GoPro mount I’ll just use the Insta360 OneX.

  3. Richard Mercer

    I’m really struggling to see where this fits in to the market with those specs at that price point. The storage and resolution specs are underwhelming for 2021 and the price isn’t especially cheap. Yes, it’s small, but that’s about all it has going for it, and it’s not like its competitors are exactly huge.

    • Toby

      100% agree. What, who, when is this for? Makes you think twice as an impulse buy when a bit more will get you substantially better devices.

      For once I’m not getting (yet another) Insta 360 camera.

    • Yup, I agree. To me the target market for this is a $129-$149 price point. Which..is roughly what the Go 1 sells for these days.

  4. Dan Kothlow

    Is there a handlebar attachment that would work with this?

  5. JR

    Steamed video? I prefer to grill or fry.

  6. Chad

    Just like their original camera, this one doesn’t have a replaceable battery, which means it will be useless in a couple of years.

  7. Tizzledk

    Hi DC,

    I think you meant ‘stream’ here “It’ll still connect to your phone though and steam a video ” I think if you steam videos you might have some issues, unless you want steamy videos which is another thing entirely. :P

  8. Jay

    if only there was more memory, would be perfect as a running cam but who goes on 10min runs?

    • Duncan74

      I’ve long said I wanted something almost like this for runs / rides. I use my gopro when cycling in timelapse photo mode to stitch into a fast video. But the gopro uses same battery on timelapse as it does video.

      I’m interested in this one if it is able to take an almost instant photo from standby/off. I’m not worried about a full 60fps video, I just want to be able to grab a snap of the ocean/lakes/hills as I’m runnign /riding to go on strava /instagramme.

    • Lex

      Duncan,

      Quick question. How GoPro in photo mode works for you (quality, battery, operations on the bike). I’ve been looking for action cam (photos mainly) but can’t find anything that takes photos instantly and deal with shakes on the bike. Looking for my iPhone when I go fast downhill to get a standing pic of the surrounding is not ideal.

    • Duncan74

      Sorry for slow response. Photo mode quality is fine for instagram timelapse videos. It’s less good for car number plates as they do tend to blur. And battery is unchanged from video, so without supplementary power still limited use for road rides. So the alternate is to record in 60fps video and grab still frames for that, and then use a backpack battery to be able to get the 5hour + run time I need. That’s still less than ideal as the mount prevents access to the USB for downloading and 5 hours of 60fps video takes another 6 hours to download via wifi…..

      SO my ideal is the go pro video for crashes/evidence and just delete each week assuming noting on there, and the go2 would be for grabbing the photos for the Strava / instagram posts.

      Edit: For example I had a car pass me at speed with a trailer last week that nearly had a head on with a car coming the other way. From the video I was able to clearly read the rear number plate of the car as it passed in that side angle before the trailer blocked the view of the plate. realative speed was about 30kph. and the frame either side didn’t show the full plate.

  9. Neil r.

    I love the fact that you have caused “outrage” at the Register for not using their standard of measurement.
    link to theregister.com

    • Good to see I’ve managed to cause outrage in more than one sphere there. :)

      I’ve also outraged all the paid influencers/sponsored videos on that product too. My bad…

  10. Ray, I’ve enjoyed your YT videos for a couple of years now, as I’m into cycling and tech.
    I’m planning on buying an Insta360 Go 2 in the coming weeks, and since I’m getting one anyway, wanted to see if you had an affiliate link so you’d get some benefit?

    • Hi David!

      Thanks for thinking of me, I appreciate it.

      Oddly, Amazon doesn’t seem to currently stock the Insta360 Go 2, so that’d be about the only place that would that would help the site. No worries though – I appreciate the thought!

      Cheers!