The Insta360 GO 3S is a tiny 4K camera that weighs under 40g and is smaller than my thumb. It can be used on its own, or with the accompanying Action Pod dock that charges the GO 3S, and has a responsive 2.2” flip screen for live preview, playback and remote control.
It’s an upgrade to one of my favourite cameras, the GO 3, that I reviewed last year. The biggest upgrade is the bump is resolution to 4K from 2.7K, but there are other improvements I’ll also discuss as I progress through the review. I’ve been thoroughly testing this camera for almost 6 months, to try and help you decide if this is the right camera for you. So let’s take a closer look.
Overview
In the box you get the camera itself, the Action Pod, a USB-C charging cable, the Easy Clip, the Pivot Stand with its accompanying base, the Magnet Pendant, a Quick Start Guide and some stickers. I have the Black version, but they do a white version too.
Insta360 cameras aren’t cheap, but they don’t skimp on the included accessories, which like their cameras, feel well made. I’ll cover how these accessories, and a few additional accessories, can be used shortly.
You need to charge the camera in the Action Pod using the supplied charging cable. There’s no charging port on the camera itself. Both the camera and Action Pod’s status LED are solid red whilst charging and turn off when fully charged. A full charge takes around 65 minutes for the Action Pod and 35 minutes for the GO 3S. Exactly the same as on the previous version.
You’ll need to connect the 3S to the Insta360 smartphone app to activate and set up the camera. The app lets you remotely control the camera, adjust settings and playback footage.
And Insta360 makes it surprisingly easy to edit and share your footage inside the app too.
You can choose to wirelessly download your footage before editing, but you don’t need to and it’s quite slow downloading files over WiFi – I only got around 20MB/s.
It makes more sense to edit long clips for sharing without downloading them. The 5Ghz wireless connection to the camera is quite stable and even scrubbing the remote file works pretty well.
There’s no removable storage in the camera or Action Pod. So you do need to choose carefully between the 64GB and the 128GB version which only costs an additional $30 or £30. I would have loved an upgraded Action Pod that had removable storage. In fact the Action Pod hasn’t changed at all. Which also means it still has very slow USB 2.0 file transfers over a wired connection to your computer. So if I fill up my 128GB camera, it’d take around an hour to transfer everything across to my computer! As a side note, when you connect it to your computer you do have the option to use it as a 1080p 30fps webcam.
Having the same Action Pod does mean you can choose to just upgrade your old GO 3 to the GO 3S and save a bit of money. Insta360 does offer the standalone camera on their website.
If you’ve used any kind of action camera, the GO 3S will feel pretty familiar when it’s in the Action Pod. A single press of the power button turns it on. The Quick Button can move between shooting modes or presets if you tap the Mode icon.
Using the touch screen, you can swipe across the middle of the screen to choose from the various shooting modes, swipe in from the right to configure settings, swipe up to set resolution and frame rate, swipe in from the left to preview your footage and swipe down to configure the camera’s settings.
Under settings you can configure the camera’s single and double press for when the camera’s on. I have a single press for FreeFrame video, and a double press for an HDR photo. I also configure the Quick button to Presets.
Press the Action Pod’s release button to remove the camera using its lens. It’s still held quite firmly magnetically so you’ll need a little steady force.
You can turn the Action Pod off with a long press of the power button. This also turns the camera off. A 3 second press of the camera’s hidden button above the LED turns the camera back on. Typically you’ll have a single press to start a video recording, and a double press for a photo, but you need to remember exactly how you set it up on the camera. I was really hoping this model would have a small OLED screen to confirm current settings. You can use the smartphone app, or turn on the Action Pod to check settings and control the camera remotely.
This connection is over Bluetooth and limited to around 5m. I got a little more than that, at least with the Action Pod.
If you’re using the app it also lets you configure the Quick Capture mode. This is how I use the camera 90% of the time. In Settings | Button Settings, setup QuickCap1 and QuickCap2. I have QuickCap1 as FreeFrame video and QuickCap 2 as Photo. There are fewer available modes with QuickCapture.
With the camera off, a single press will now turn the camera on and immediately start recording a video. When you press the button again, the camera will stop recording and turn off. Same with a double press for a photo. You might want this setup as a single press for standard video, and a double press for FreeFrame video which requires editing in the app but provides more control. More on this shortly.
The camera and Action Pod don’t have a ¼” tripod mount but you can use the included Pivot Stand which does, to mount either the camera or Action Pod to any standard tripod.
Both align magnetically with the Quick Release fixture and then lock into place with the latches either side. You do need to make sure they’re firmly attached and both latches are engaged.
The camera itself also snaps to the included Magnet Pendant which is worn around your neck, behind your top. It can be positioned horizontally or vertically, and will automatically switch between 16:9 and 9:16 aspect ratio accordingly. This is a new feature on the 3S Insta360 call Easy Switch. The GO 3 recorded 16:9 landscape with the camera in either orientation or you could switch to Pro Mode where you could change the aspect ratio in post.
The GO 3 and 3S actually share the same rectangular sensor, but the GO 3 only used a square crop which meant it didn’t matter which way the camera was oriented. The 3S uses the whole sensor for the extra resolution, which means it does matter which way you orient the camera. Personally I prefer how this worked on the GO 3. I need to be more careful filming with the 3S, since I rarely actually want portrait mode. I wish you could at least turn off Easy Switch.
The camera can also be attached magnetically to the Easy Clip. This is meant to be attached to a baseball cap, but I use it to store the camera on my running shorts waist band. I don’t carry my phone running, so with this setup I still have a camera should I need one. And it’s so light you barely notice it. Do make sure you hold at full arm’s length away from you. I measure the closest focusing distance at around 30cm – something to be aware of.
This easy clip also now has a magnetic back, so can be attached to the Magnet Pendant which allows for 180° of vertical adjustment which is very useful on a bike so you don’t just see the ground. I’ll come back to this shortly.
The camera makes a great beach camera and is now waterproof to 10m, up from 5m for the GO 3. I’ve not yet used this model in the sea, but have endless footage with my GO 3. Unfortunately the Action Pod is only IPX4 splashproof rated – and even that’s only with the camera installed. So I tend to leave the Action Pod at home, and use my phone for any setup or control.
Performance
As I already mentioned the GO 3S has the same sensor as the GO 3, but it now has a new f2.8 lens that uses the entire sensor for the 4K resolution rather than the 2.7K centre crop of the GO 3.
As well as the increased 4K resolution which maxes out at 30 fps, there’s a maximum bitrate of 120Mbps, up from 80Mbps and an enhanced CPU according to Insta360. The resolution and bitrate have increased but the lens has a smaller aperture compared to the GO 3’s f2.2.
You can now record at up to 50fps at 2.7K and 1080p. It’s a little surprising there’s no 60fps. For higher framerates you need to switch to Slow Motion mode where you can record at up to 100fps at 2.7K and 200fps at 1080p, but without audio.
For such a tiny camera, image quality in bright conditions is good. And low light performance was better than I was expecting, even with the smaller aperture. So long as there is at least some natural or artificial light, the footage is still usable, especially for sharing on social media, or with friends and family. But Insta360’s FlowState Image Stabilisation won’t perform so well when light levels dip, which is the same on most action cameras. It relies on the higher shutter speeds available in brighter conditions.
I used the camera a lot cycling and running, and the Flowstate Stabilisation does a very good job the majority of the time. If you shoot in the standard video mode you need to set your level of stabilisation before you start recording. I normally leave it at the default Standard setting which works fine. If you record in FreeFrame mode, stabilisation is done in the smartphone app before you export. Using the desktop app to switch image stabilisation on and off you can see what a difference it makes if you watch the associated video review.
Flowstate Stabilisation does have limitations though, even in good light. You do need to be careful how your camera is mounted. I used the Magnet Pendant with the Easy Clip but on a slightly baggy mountain bike jersey. There was just too much movement for the software to cope with. That’s completely my fault but something to be aware of.
In Freeframe Video you don’t need to worry about aspect ratio or field of view – this can all be set in the app afterwards. You can enable the guides to help framing and then in the smartphone or desktop app, you can choose from standard 16:9 landscape mode or 9:16 portrait mode for Instagram or TikTok. There’s also 1:1, 4:3 and 3:4. 4:3, being the complete sensor capture. And you can set the field of view including the new MegaView.
Personally I much prefer using FreeFrame mode since I nearly always use the app for at least some basic editing anyway, but if you just want to record a clip and share it without any editing, stick with the standard video mode. And as I alluded to earlier, if you definitely want 9:16 footage rotate the camera vertically to use the whole sensor.
There are two microphones on the camera itself – there are no mics on the Action Pod. Watch the accompanying video for full microphone tests.
I particularly like how easy it is to unscrew the lens cover on the 3S. You can fit a replacement cover if you break it, or you can screw on ND filters, for more realistic motion blur on sunny days.
The 3S has a tiny 310mAh battery – same as on the GO 3. With the extra processing power and higher resolution, battery life is less than on the GO 3. Insta360 specifies 32 minutes for the camera and a total of 122 minutes when it’s in the Action Pod, recording at 4K 30fps. I did my own tests and got just over 32 minutes also at 4K 30fps.
Checking with my thermal imaging camera the camera did get pretty warm at almost 60°C but it only shut off when the battery was depleted, not because it overheated. Battery life is probably one of the greatest limitations of this camera, although I have just noticed Insta360 have released a battery pack for the GO 3 and GO 3S which doubles the runtime. I’ve not tried that accessory yet, but will try and get hold of one, and update the written article.
I’ve touched on mounting the camera, but this is where the GO 3S excels, and conveniently you should already have the right accessory for you included with the camera. Even without any accessories the back of the camera is magnetic so you can mount it to most metal objects.
The Magnet Pendant is probably the best accessory for casual use. You get an excellent POV camera angle on your chest, and it’s super easy to attach and remove, when you need it.
The magnetic attachment is strong as well – I’ve used it through a thick down jacket. With a tight cycling jersey this also works well on your bike, but you’ll need to use the Easy Clip to get a decent angle. This only makes sense in landscape mode, so if you think you might want a 9:16 portrait shot, I’d shoot in FreeFrame mode to get a limited 9:16 crop in post.
The Pivot Stand has a reusable suction mount, but if you unscrew this, there’s a ¼” tripod mount that works well on a selfie stick. I prefer using the Mini 2 in 1 tripod and the quick release mount, which are additional accessories. It is a very versatile and lightweight combo though. I’ve carried this on runs and you barely notice the weight – the tripod and camera only weighs 160g – far less than my iPhone 15 Pro Max with its case. The Quick Release mount has a standard ¼” tripod mount and folding GoPro fingers so you can use it with lots of other action camera accessories too.
There’s also this Action Mount accessory which is a super lightweight and convenient way to attach the camera to GoPro mounts. I’ve used it to attach the camera to my remote control car.
But the most useful additional accessory is probably the Quick Reader. This lets you easily offload footage from your camera to a microSD card.
You can do this via the Action Pod which gives you a graphical user interface, or just plugged into a battery pack which saves the Action’s Pod’s battery and charges the camera too.
You can plug the Quick Reader into your phone and edit off the microSD card directly using the Insta360 app. Unfortunately it’s not recognised as an external drive in the Files app on my iPhone.
And I can remove the card and depending on the speed of your card and card reader it should be faster transferring files to your computer. I get 90MB/s with this 512GB Lexar card, over two times faster than using the supplied USB cable. It is a little pricey though and it’s not super intuitive to use.
There are a few new features on the 3S I’ve not yet covered. The camera is now supported by Apple Find My. I genuinely had to use this feature to find the camera, which it turned out had been swept up in a pile of clean laundry! If you tap Play Sound the camera beeps to help you locate it. This is just the camera itself – not the Action Pod.
Finally there’s a new Interval mode for automatically capturing and editing footage with AI. There are various modes from a Vlogging mode, to cooking to capturing a POV of your pet!
Conclusions
Just like its predecessors the GO 3S is an incredibly versatile camera. It’s a relatively minor upgrade from the GO 3, but the bump in resolution to 4K makes it even more capable and Insta360 continue to improve their smartphone and desktop app, which makes editing and sharing your footage easier than ever.
For action sports I’d of course like higher frame rates at 4K for smoother footage. And an OLED screen on the camera itself to at least check settings would make the camera more user friendly. I’d also love the Action Pod to be weather proof – I usually end up leaving it behind on bike rides and trips to the beach. But I’m nitpicking really. The GO 3S is a great little camera and would make a perfect accompaniment to your smartphone for many people.
Don’t forget to take a look at my YouTube video at the top of the page, and again please subscribe to my YouTube channel where I’m releasing videos every week on the latest technology and how to get the most out of it. If you tap the bell icon when you subscribe you’ll get a notification as soon as I release a video, and there’ll be a link to my site here for the written article. YouTube is also the best place to leave a comment. I read all of them and respond to as many as I can!
Please help support my website and my associated YouTube channel by purchasing directly from Insta360. It doesn’t cost you a penny more – and I’ll keep the link updated with any offers:
Insta360 GO 3S: https://www.insta360.com/sal/go-3
You can also purchase from Amazon:
Insta360 GO 3S: https://amzn.to/3Ybwmf4 (this is an affiliate link)
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