GoPro has had a big year. A lot has happened with the brand, but one thing has stayed consistent: people’s curiosity about what’s next for the company. Earlier in 2025, GoPro relaunched its MAX action camera and colourful iterations of the HERO 13 Black, but apart from rumours, we didn’t quite know what to expect in September, when the brand usually launches its latest products.
Rumours about the upcoming MAX 2 have been circulating for weeks (or months?), with GoPro itself teasing features, including the replaceable lens covers, on its many social media channels ahead of time. I have been lucky enough to test the latest 360-degree action camera ahead of the launch – here’s what I found.
Unicorns and heavy crowns
The GoPro MAX 2 resembles the lovechild of the original MAX and the GoPro Hero, the “nugget-sized” model the company introduced last year. The MAX 2 has a stocky shape, compared to the Insta360 X5. According to Pablo Lema, GoPro’s Senior VP of Product (whom I interviewed last year), they designed the MAX 2 to be less tubular to avoid people “looking like a unicorn” when worn on the head.
As he puts it, “As 360 cameras get into more athletes’ hands, being low-profile and out of the way becomes increasingly important.” Interestingly, the camera has become heavier since the last time (195g vs 158.9g) and thicker (48.7mm vs 39.7mm), likely due to the larger battery (1,960mAh vs 1,600mAh) and other factors.
I really don’t have a massive preference regarding 360 action camera shape. The longer/slimmer variety makes sense for selfie sticks, but equally, the MAX 2 weighs pretty much exactly the same as the X5, so the shape of the camera doesn’t make much of a difference.
Twist, mount, repeat
The same goes for the shape and orientation of the display: the MAX 2’s horizontal screen works just as fine as the X5’s vertical approach. As long as the shape doesn’t affect stitching, I couldn’t care less.
One thing that has also increased in size is the touchscreen display, which has expanded from 1.69" to 1.82" and now occupies more than half of the rear of the MAX 2. I would say it makes it easier to frame yourself, but you really don’t have to frame anything with a 360 camera, as it captures everything around it, allowing you to reframe footage in post.
The MAX 2 now features interchangeable lenses that can be easily replaced without the need for any tools. While the Insta360 X5 also has this feature, it’s quite challenging to remove its lenses without tools; the rubber rings around MAX 2’s lenses make it easy to grab and twist them.
Plus, a small icon on the side of the ring helps you determine if the lens is fully locked in or not – small details like this make GoPros so popular. The only slight caveat I found is that fully tightening the lens requires some squeezing, but it’s still a hundred times easier than anything I experienced before. Not to mention, the low-light champion DJI OSMO 360 doesn’t have this feature at all, so there is that.
Another physical update is the mounting. GoPro applied the same triple-mount approach they rolled out last year, allowing you to use the MAX 2 with a variety of accessories. The threaded mount is great for selfie-stick action, but if you prefer to have the camera affixed to your helmet, you can also use the finger or magnetic mounts.
Pixels and promises
The front of the MAX 2 features the same ridged design as last year’s Hero to enhance heat dissipation. Finally, the MAX 2’s sound performance has been greatly improved, thanks to the six-microphone setup. Better still, the camera can not only capture sound all around it, but it also has better directional focus in certain modes (e.g. POV).
We expected the MAX 2 to improve image quality over its predecessor, and it’s exactly what happened. The MAX 2 can shoot 360-degree footage in 8K, and the brand claims its 8K resolution is superior to that of other companies. GoPro produced a white paper to explain this, saying that other brands take non-useable pixels into account when calculating resolution.
In practice, this doesn’t really make a difference on a day-to-day basis. Sure, the MAX 2 probably has the most usable pixels, but 360 action cams are not the pros’s top choice, and therefore, I don’t think many will care enough about the extra pixels. That said, GoPro claims the MAX 2 has 16-21% more resolution than the competition, which is quite a significant upgrade.
There is one area where this is obvious, which is when you freeze the frame in the Quik app. In my experience, it felt like I could grab any frame from a 30 fps video and use it as a photo. The frames feel less gimmicky, and the colours and lines more defined – one of the best things about using a GoPro.
Colour and motion
The brand also added 10-bit colour (the MAX could “only” do 8 bits), which increases the colour palette and provides smoother gradients. The MAX 2 is also capable of GP-Log encoding with GoPro LUTs, allowing you to seamlessly integrate the footage into your professional workflow.
The bitrate has increased to 100 Mbps (from 78 Mbps) or 300 Mbps using GoPro Labs. A higher bitrate means finer detail, texture, and motion information, although it increases file size. Combined with the deeper colours and larger resolution, it’s easy to see why the MAX 2 produces such sharp videos.
Another feature people love about GoPros is slow motion, and the MAX 2 delivers on this front, too. You can achieve up to 3x slow motion (100 fps played back at 30 or 25 fps) while maintaining 4K resolution across the full 360° sphere, or 2x slow motion in 5.6K resolution. I haven't tested this feature yet, but it sounds promising!
The MAX 2 offers two modes that make it easier to shoot specific types of content. In POV mode, you get a front-facing 180° POV angle, with the best stabilisation settings. Playback is ready to export as a traditional flat video, with minimal or no video editing necessary. Selfie mode is best used for those classic selfie stick shots. Both modes capture the full 360 scene.
As mentioned above, the MAX 2 has a much larger battery than the MAX, which it needs as 8K videos eat battery for breakfast. An approx. 50-minute timelapse video in 8k resolution essentially halved the battery (with GPS on). Shooting shorter bursts of footage – even in 8K – prevents the MAX 2 from overheating, significantly improving battery life. Although there is no fast charging function, the battery is removable, allowing you to swap it out if necessary and continue shooting.
Themes with limits
All footage is edited in the Quik app, which I must say isn’t quite as user-friendly as Insta360’s when it comes to 360-degree footage, but it’s decent. There are multiple ways to review and edit your videos, including using keyframes and pointing your smartphone in the direction you want your video to face (also known as MotionFrame).
There is, of course, “Themes” that lets you edit footage automatically, but some of the functionality is paywalled behind the Premium and Premium+ subscriptions. Additionally, the themes in Themes are somewhat random, unlike Insta360’s version, where you generally know what to expect (perhaps it’s just a communication issue).
The price of ambition
The more I looked into the GoPro MAX 2, the more I liked it. It’s not a revolutionary action camera, but it’s a great 360 action cam. Where it really shines is image quality: those 8K videos with 10-bit colour and 100 Mbps bitrate look crisp and well-balanced. I expected nothing less from the brand, but it’s nice to see the MAX 2 delivers.
As for the price, the MAX 2 sells for slightly less than the Insta360 X6 and significantly more than the DJI OSMO 360. $499.99 is a flagship price and a whopping $100 more than the recommended price of the HERO 13 Black – that’s quite a statement from GoPro. It’s clear the brand is targeting Insta360 with the price.
Too ambitious? Maybe, but GoPro also like to drop the price of cameras not long after they were launched, so that it might be a strategy here, too. One thing is sure: the MAX 2 is an action camera that pushes you out of your comfort zone by pushing itself to its limits. And I’m totally here for it.
The MAX 2 is now available for preorder from GoPro at the recommended retail price of $499.99. It'll start shipping on 20 September 2025.
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