Following the much-lauded launch of the GoPro Hero 11 Black two months ago, the GoPro Hero11 Black Mini is finally shipping (after the original release date was pushed back from 18 November), just in time for Black Friday and Christmas.
While it didn’t reinvent any wheels, the full-size GoPro Hero11 Black is a very impressive piece of tech and it raced straight to the top of our guide to the best action cameras available today. You can read a full review here, and also check out how the Hero11 compares to the Hero10.
That the Hero11 was going to be accompanied by a smaller sidekick, however, was one of the more intriguing elements of the release, even if it was September’s worst kept secret, with leaks and low-lit images of the mini doing the rounds long before the new model landed. But now we can actually get a proper look at the little action camera to see what’s it’s capable of.
Dispensing with a screen (to keep the dimensions and weight down), the miniature version of the GoPro Hero 11 Black is squarely angled towards adventurers and athletes looking to shoot cutting edge POV vision without hulking much bulk around.
The Hero 11 Black Mini is super versatile, thanks to its tiny size and dual mounting fingers, and it’s simple to operate, with one-button control. As you’d expect, the performance remains superlative, delivering cinematic 5.3K60, 4K120 + 2.7K240 video, with 24.7 megapixel stills.
The slimmed-down build boasts the identical larger 8:7 sensor as the full size Hero 11 Black, and also features GoPro’s signature HyperSmooth 5.0 and 10-bit colour depth, and HyperView wide-angle lens, which can deliver the widest angle 16:9 shot ever produced natively in a Hero camera.
Other features include 360-degree Horizon Lock and three new night effect time lapse presets, which enable you to easily capture pro-quality star trails, light painting and vehicle light trails.
The Mini is powered by a new Enduro Lithium Ion rechargeable battery, and although the 1,500mAh is lower, there’s no screen to drain it so the run time is comparable to the bigger model. On the downside, you can’t swap the battery out when it’s out of juice.
And, as you might expect, the Hero11 Black Mini will also leave a smaller hole in your bank balance than the big daddy cam; it’s available now on GoPro.com for £299.98 (US$299.98 / AU$499) for GoPro Subscribers and £449.98 MSRP, with wider retail availability coming soon. Mini joins the already-available HERO11 Black at £349.98 for GoPro Subscribers (£549.98 MSRP) and HERO11 Black Creator Edition at £579.98 for GoPro Subscribers (£829.94 MSRP).
Watch this space for a full reviews. And be sure to look out for Black Friday deals on this and other GoPro action cams.
