GoPro Hero5 Session Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

GoPro’s Session camera got off to a rocky start.

The tiny cube-shaped shooter — the smallest the company had ever made — received praise for its design while simultaneously being bashed for middling video quality and too few features for too high a price. It wasn’t until GoPro cut the price in half to $200 that consumers were able to look past its shortcomings.

For the Hero5 Session, let’s just say GoPro has learned its lesson. It’s still going to seem pricy to some at $300, AU$460 and £250, but at least now it has some higher-end features to back it up, including 4K-resolution video.

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Before I dive into the features, though, you should know its design is essentially unchanged. If you didn’t like the original with its built-in battery, no screen for previewing and reviewing, and limited onboard controls, you’re not going to like the Hero5 version any better.

What you do get is the same supersmall camera that turns on and starts recording with a single button press and is much easier to mount than its rectangular linemate, the Hero5 Black. It’s still waterproof without a housing down to 10 meters (33 feet), and GoPro CEO Nick Woodman said when he announced it that it’s the toughest camera they’ve ever made.

A sliver of a screen lets you see your settings, storage and battery amounts and select your shooting mode, but it can be frustrating to use. The camera does have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, though, so you can always connect to a phone to access that stuff and more.

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Don’t want to mess with buttons? GoPro added voice controls for starting and stopping recordings, snapping photos and even tagging highlights for editing. Maybe you’ve mounted the camera out of reach or you don’t want to take off gloves to switch from recording video to a time-lapse or you just enjoy yelling commands at inanimate objects. Whatever the case, the Hero5 Session has you covered.

GoPro also added electronic image stabilization and a new Linear-view setting that supposedly puts an end to the wide-angle distortion in video and photos. I haven’t had a chance to test these, yet, but I’m hopeful.

The camera also supports GoPro Plus, the company’s new $5-per-month cloud service. Plug in the camera to charge and your photos and movies will automatically upload to the service for viewing and sharing your phone, tablet or computer. It doesn’t replace storing your clips locally (video uploads are transcoded to 1080p at 30 frames per second, regardless of what you recorded them at), but it does mean they’re not trapped on a microSD card somewhere.

And, just in case you were curious, the Hero5 Session is compatible with GoPro’s Karma drone and can actually be purchased as a package for $999 (about £765 or AU$1,325 converted).

We’ll be back soon with a full review.