review

September 24, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Logitech Signature Solar Slim+ K980 Keyboard Review: See the Light

by admin September 24, 2025

This likely won’t be an issue for anyone who wants a practical, simple keyboard, especially if you don’t care much about typing feel. However, there are countless other keyboards—wired and wireless—that can deliver more enjoyable typing experiences at comparable prices.

The Slim Solar+ K980 has a traditional full-size layout, with a number pad and a separate arrow key cluster. This layout takes up a good amount of space, but it has every key you’ll need. The function row can swap between function keys and system controls by pressing Fn + Esc, and the system controls include volume adjustments, play/pause/skip, brightness adjustments, window navigation, an emoji menu, and a key to summon Windows’ built-in speech dictation system. All of these are useful and convenient, and the labels are nearly all self-explanatory at a glance.

Photograph: Henri Robbins

These shortcut keys can also be customized with the Logi Options+ app, which has extensive productivity-oriented customizations. The most significant is the ability to remap the function row and navigation keys to specific keys, macros, key combinations, or programmed “Smart Actions.” Some of the preconfigured Smart Actions include a “Social Media Break” key to open multiple social media platforms in a new window (not quite what I would have imagined from the name), or a “Work Mode” key that opens Gmail and the Microsoft 365 Suite. These can be customized endlessly, with dedicated support for AI assistants, navigation, and other convenience-oriented commands.

Alongside customization options, there’s multi-device connectivity via Bluetooth with support for up to three devices that can be cycled through via dedicated keys. Or you can keep it connected to one device with the included USB-C Logi Bolt receiver. I had no issues with connectivity.

The keyboard has dual Mac and Windows legends on the bottom row, making it easy to switch between two operating systems. (There’s also a macOS-only version you can buy.) As the name suggests, the K980 is incredibly slim. It’s less than half the thickness of a true mechanical keyboard, with the thickest point measuring 18 millimeters (0.7 inch), and it can easily slip between other items in a backpack. The main issue is length, but that’s a problem with all full-size keyboards.

Practicality and Sustainability

Photograph: Henri Robbins

The only way to recharge this keyboard is with the solar panel on top. It doesn’t have any kind of USB port. Logitech claims the keyboard’s battery can run for four months without any light sources. Presumably, it can run indefinitely in a well-lit environment.

September 24, 2025 0 comments

Baby Steps review | PC Gamer

by admin September 24, 2025

Need to know

What is it? There is only one set of footsteps in the sand, because you are on your fuckin’ own, mate.
Expect to pay: $18/£15.30
Developer: Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, Bennett Foddy
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Reviewed on: Windows 11, Intel Core i9, 32GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 4060
Multiplayer? No
Link: Official site

I fell while navigating some tricky rocks, rolling downhill like a wet sausage until I was caught by a grassy ledge. The only paths back up involved even tricker rocks, and predictably I fell again, tumbling off the grassy ledge to land next to a mudslide. Fortunately there was a dry path beside the mud, and unfortunately I found a single rock on that path, tripped, hit the mudslide, and slid to the bottom of it.

Walking back up that path I managed to slip into the mud twice more, the second time achieving such slippery velocity I flung myself back to a previous biome, landing in a lake. That motivated me to try a different route entirely, heading back toward a labyrinth of cardboard called Box Hell, at which point I spotted a ladder leaning against the hill I somehow completely missed the first time through this area, and which let me bypass all that mud-and-rock nonsense.

It still took me three goes to get up the ladder, of course.

This is Baby Steps, a parody of open world games, and our collective punishment for using the phrase “walking simulator”. You play Nate, a basement-dwelling loser mysteriously teleported from his couch to the wilderness like the Pevensie children being magicked to Narnia, only instead of plucky youngsters full of Blitz spirit you are a 35-year-old failure full of pizza.

There is a mountain in the wilderness and maybe if Nate climbs it he’ll be able to go home. It’s as reasonable an assumption as any, so off you set, taking your first steps, and almost immediately falling on your dumptruck ass.

(Image credit: Devolver)

Baby Steps recommends you play with a controller like a real yakuza, so I did. Squeezing one trigger lifts your foot, and pushing a stick moves that foot. You’ve got a fine degree of control over where that foot ends up before you put it back down, which will not save you. Nate has all the balance and grace of a moose on ice, and he’s doing this hike barefoot.

He could have got shoes at the start of the climb, but he turned them down. In the first of many delightfully improvised cutscenes, Nate meets a cheerful Australian hiker who offers help and he immediately says no. Nate is a man so awkward he wants every social interaction to end the moment it begins, if not sooner, rejecting every offer of help, including a map I would actually really have appreciated.

Baby Steps takes the idea of games as challenges, of hard modes and iron man runs and proud declarations that yellow paint is ruining videogames, and personifies it as a specific kind of man—the man who will not ask for directions no matter how lost he is. The next time someone dresses their victory over a videogame as some kind of macho triumph, I’ll be thinking of Nate, his onesie turning brown as he falls in the mud over and over.

Because it was there

In addition to the challenge of working your way from one campfire to the next as you ascend through a series of zones, there are optional challenges to hurl your wobbly cheeks at. Hats you can wear are precariously placed on top of trees or broken piles, and so are lost objects to return to nearby firetowers. But every time you tumble there’s a high chance you’ll lose your hat or whatever’s in your hand, and the act of leaning over to pick it back up can sometimes send you tumbling again. I lost a hat when I fell through the roof of a barn and couldn’t find it in all the straw, a moment so dispiriting I gave up on hats entirely and did the rest of the climb bareheaded.

(Image credit: Devolver)

But the moments that are most dispiriting are when you’re completely at a loss as to which of several hardscrabble climbs is even doable. Sometimes there’s only one way up (like the ant tunnels leading out of the sandcastle), but sometimes there are multiple paths of varying difficulty. How many times do you throw yourself at a broken rockface or a cactus bridge or a wet plank before you trundle off to see if there’s an easier way?

More than once I gave up on something that turned out to actually be the easy option because I blundered my first couple of attempts, then wandered around for an hour trying things that were far harder. At one point I knocked down a yellow shovel I could have used as a bridge and spent an age trying other ascents before learning that if I just quit out and went back in again the shovel returned to its original location.

(Image credit: Devolver)

Odds are you’ll find at least one moment in Baby Steps you think crosses the line from “funny satire of videogame design and difficulty discourse” into “actual bullshit someone should be ashamed of.” It’ll probably happen somewhere different for everyone, though the odds of it being one of the many bullshit moments in the sandy zone are high.

Scale Sheer Surface

I’ve heard people say they stopped enjoying Skyrim the moment they realized they could fast-travel. Once they started teleporting from one quest goal to the next all the fun went out of it. I enjoyed Skyrim even with the fast-travel, but I understand their position. Bouncing directly from objective to objective can be draining and joyless in a way that ambling around isn’t.

Baby Steps makes ambling into slapstick comedy, and I laughed a lot while Nate groaned and swore and blubbered. At least, for the first seven or so hours. The seven hours after that started to edge into being draining and joyless in their own way—honestly, sand can fuck right off forever, Anakin was right, just a hateful substance—but by that point the story had hooked me. The snappy dialogue of those cutscenes stays funny when the physics lols have worn out their welcome.

(Image credit: Devolver)

The reward for persevering in Baby Steps isn’t anything as ephemeral as a sense of triumph over adversity or whatever nonsense the masocore people get out of their boring games. No, it’s cutscenes where a character who is probably voiced by Bennett Foddy menaces Nate through sheer overbearing force of personality and Australian-ness.

Normally satire makes it hard to take the thing it’s satirizing seriously, but after almost 15 hours of waddlebitching my way up one mountain I loaded up Borderlands 4 and doing a doublejump-glide into a jetbike felt incredible. Baby Steps is a masterpiece, but I think actually I will just chill in a game with quest markers for a while.

September 24, 2025 0 comments

Skate Early Access review – four wheels and a dream

by admin September 24, 2025

After an absolute age, EA’s wheelie classic is back with great handling and a whole world of slightly jarring niceness.

Few people are saying this out loud, but the new Skate game is essentially an MMO. That’s not what most people want at the moment, by the looks of it, which may explain why few people are saying it out loud.

Skate review

And there are good reasons for this! The broadband connection is a pain, the free-to-play model makes people fret and, with EA, there’s always the strong chance that a world you’ve grown to love will simply blip out of existence one day because the share price sneezed.

But there’s also something really interesting about doing this with Skate, and that’s because MMOs are often RPGs, which means that they frequently have to deal with an odd little conceptual nailbomb. It’s the apocalypse, or something like it. The land has changed and we all feel it in the earth. Enemies are on the march. And you’re the only person who can save the world. But also: there’s a queue. There’s a queue to save the world, and so you eventually join the world-saving quest queue waiting patiently behind a dozen other Chosen Ones.

To put it more broadly, in an MMO, everything’s important but nothing’s really urgent. That’s kind of weird when we’re dealing with an RPG or some kind of cinematic narrative. But throw that state of being into a skating game where nothing’s urgent and only the smallest details are important, and you have something potentially fascinating. It’s like the moment in Below Deck when you realise these people are all dressed in navy epaulets and are chattering urgently into earpieces and talking about rank and all that jazz, but the only mission, per se, involves making sure the mimosas keep flowing. It’s almost Star Trek, but there’s little to no chance of the Romulans turning up and blowing a hole in the hull.

Here’s a Skate trailer to show it in motion.Watch on YouTube

As for what Skate definitely is, it’s the latest installment in EA’s beloved skating series, but it’s set in an always online open world in which you’re chucked in with 149 other skaters and allowed to explore the city of San Vansterdam, which we will get to in a moment. San Vanderstam is carved up into different areas, and the Early Access build has a spine of semi-narrative that takes you through them in turn as you learn what’s what.

You progress by taking on missions, and also by accessing challenges scattered across the map. A lot of these challenges refresh throughout the day, because this is, whisper it, an MMO. They’re simple multi-part fun. Often you have to collect things in a line, and trick as you do so. Sometimes you have to hurl yourself off a building and do interesting things as you plummet to the earth and crashland in a dumpster. Sometimes you have to simply own the spot, by tricking, earning points, getting air. All of this comes with nice tools for capturing video of what you’ve just done, and with a simple drag-and-drop system for adding ramps and rails and whatnot which other players can also have fun with. You can make your own spot and 149 other people might want to enjoy it too! That is lovely stuff.

Image credit: Eurogamer / EA

At the heart of everything is the Flick-It system, which I love very, very much. It comes in a range of flavours here depending on your familiarity with it or your compulsion to become familiar with it through effort, but essentially, you flick the right stick – bear in mind I’m someone who has to have L and R written on their hands during swimming lessons, so right and left are fairly mutable terms to me at the best of times – in order to pull off tricks. There is such a gorgeous elasticity to this, and a quiet physicality which means you feel some kind of genuine connection to the neat footwork unfolding on the screen whenever you do something cool. There are also expanded moves like grabs and spins, all of which fold in with Flick-It very sweetly.

Gosh it’s a gorgeous thing. And to highlight just how gorgeous it is, and how gorgeous it remains in this new version of the game, I’m just going to tell you about manuals. Manuals are – and pardon my short-hand, I am no kind of skater in real life – manuals are essentially wheelies on a skate board. You push down on the back of the board and the front goes up. I have never manualed in real life, but I manual whenever I can in skating games, and Skate’s take on this is glorious. It’s because you pull back on the right stick, which is fine, but there’s this sweet spot you have to find. Pull back all the way, until stick clicks against housing, and you will not manual. This is because manualling is a butterfly thing, and it responds to tentative movements, to a feeling out of precise spaces. So to manual, you pull back on the stick and find a space precisely within that empty area between the stick being in its standard position and the stick being all the way back. It reminds me in some complex, the-details-are-invisible way of safe-cracking. I love it. And I love Flick-It.

Flick-It brings the game to life, and has kept me playing through challenges that don’t have an enormous amount of variation to them and through a city which I love, but which I also know is a touch antiseptic and safe. I love San Vansterdam because the starting area at least is clearly inspired by places like Downtown Los Angeles – there’s that smooth concrete and stone, that sun-bleached horizon, stand-ins for things like the ARCO Tower. I love Downtown Los Angeles because it feels dreamlike if you catch it at the right moment, like it’s both heavy and tangible and barely there at all. But it’s a world away from the kind of spaces Tony Hawk would take you, for example, and to a lot of people its particular character may come off as a lack of character in general.

Image credit: Eurogamer / EA

Even so, San Vansterdam is a city in name only, and really a beautifully spaced-out skating park filled with lines and jumps and grinds that I am still discovering. I love skating with strangers here – there’s part of the campaign that forces you to pool with other players, and it worked perfectly for me and I lost a few hours to it. But I also love skating alongside strangers. I’ll come to one of the bespoke skating parks and see dozens of people skating and jumping and grabbing and spinning and pulling off the kind of tricks and chains of tricks that I can only dream of. But it makes me feel a part of something, and I love dropping out to the map and seeing an area where spots are moving back and forth, and then heading to that area and seeing that they’re people! I love dropping into spectating mode and watching people trick and grab and twist.

Onto the payment side of things! Skate has loot boxes which so far it’s rewarded me with for completing missions, and you can also pay real money to buy cosmetics. I have to be honest, I find this side of things quite unexciting, but it feels as if Skate does too. You can play without paying a penny, anyway, and no tricks or challenges will ever be put behind a paywall. It’s all hats and trousers and that kind of thing in the store. It feels like a deal I am happy with?

Image credit: Eurogamer / EA

I love a lot about Skate, then. More, I suspect, that a lot of people. But even I can sense that there’s something missing here. How can I explain this? Okay: don’t get upset, but Skate is perhaps the least cool game I have ever played.

And I mean this in the main as a compliment. Skate isn’t trying too hard, and it wants to be friendly to a large audience, and I suspect it’s also made by people who have lived enough of their lives to know that you miss out on important stuff in the pursuit of being cool for the sake of being cool alone. But Skate is set in a city that everyone loves, a city that’s basically designed for skating, and that means that some of the punkier side of skating – the repurposing of an environment that is built as if you don’t exist, or don’t matter – is absent.

Image credit: Eurogamer / EA

Skate is almost punishingly nice at times. Do the slightest thing on a board in this game and the voiceover buries you with the kind of cardboard love bombs you might expect from a large language model. I like people being nice to me! But I also know that real skating, which I have never done, has an aspect that is not coming across here.

Skate accessibility options

Vibration toggle, FOV and camera shake sliders, three levels of control presets, Flick-It sensitivity slider, toggles for pushing and maintaining speed, grind assist slider and toggle for friendlier wipeout threshold, flip tricks catch assist toggle, auto curb pop toggle, auto mantle and auto wallrun toggles.

Or is it? Skate has parkour, which is clumsy and slow and I kind of love it. You can get off the board and climb skyscrapers to find stunt spots or just a great area to hang out in, like an abandoned swimming pool, waiting for you in the sky. And because you can get off the board, loads of players have discovered that you can jump and roll and basically barrel your way around the world without skating at all.

I have seen this a few times, mostly in the very early days of the game when it was still quite hard to get online, what with the queues and everything, so I stuck around quite a bit on each visit. And what I realised was that people have found a way to push against the design here, just as skaters once found a way to grind hand rails and turn ornamental planters into jumps. This suggests to me, along with the plans to do something Fortnitey with the game, reworking parts of the city on a seasonal basis, that the story of this new Skate is not yet fully written. It is only Early Access, after all. I think I’m probably going to stick around to see how it all turns out.

A copy of Skate was provided for this early access review by EA.

September 24, 2025 0 comments

Laifen Wave SE Toothbrush review: is gentle the new movement?

by admin September 24, 2025

Why you can trust TechRadar

We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Laifen Wave SE Toothbrush: One minute review

The Laifen Wave SE is the second electric toothbrush from the Chinese manufacturer. This Special Edition variant is a follow-up to the original Wave which looks – and is in most ways – very similar.

The standout difference in the SE over the Wave is that this offers what the company calls a more “cozy” brushing experience. How? It vibrates less. Yup, while the original Wave pushed out a brain buzzing 66,000 vibrations per minute, this variant is a far more gentle 26,000. There are also a few more color variants available in the SE, too.

So while this might make the best electric toothbrush list alongside sonic and traditionally oscillating models, this brush both oscillates and vibrates, carving its own niche in electric toothbrush options.

One other big shift in the SE is that this model has been certified by the American Dental Association. That makes this the first dual-action toothbrush to achieve this accolade, helping this unique offering stand out even more.

The battery life is another area this manages to perform very well in thanks to a 50-hour top-end, possibly due to its lower power. The brush can be charged to full in only three hours using a standard USB-C port, meaning you may only need to take one cable when travelling.

Most Laifen replacement heads will work with the SE, and you get two with the unit including travel cases for each. But you can also use Philips SonicCare heads, which is great if you need to pick one up in a physical shop, where you likely won’t find Laifen anytime soon.

Laifen Wave SE review: Price and availability

(Image credit: Future)

Priced at $90 in the US
£90 in the UK
AU$200 in Australia

The Laifen Wave SE follows up the original, which arrived earlier in 2025, and is priced at $89.99 in the US, £89.99 in the UK and AU$199.99 in Australia.

That price gets you the brush unit, two replacement heads with their own travel cases, and a USB-A to USB-C charger cable. You also get an impressive two-year warranty and a 30-days “no hassle” guarantee.

Usefully, depending on your region, you can buy via Amazon for a quick and secure delivery – which can be free for Prime members.

You can buy a set of three replacement heads in various designs and levels of stiffness, including Super Clean, Gum Care, or Ultra-Whitening. In all cases, the price is the same at US$15.99 / £15.99 / AU$14.99 for a set.

(Image credit: Future)

Laifen Wave SE review: Specifications

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Component

Value

Battery life

50 days

Sonic vibrations

26,000 per minute

Charger

USB-C

Timer

Yes, two minute with 30-second haptics

Noise

55 dB

Charge time

3 hours

Laifen Wave SE review: Design

(Image credit: Future)

Two colors
IP68 waterproof
Cushioned heads

At first glance you’d struggle to spot the difference between the Laifen Wave SE and the original model. That’s because they’re almost identical, only this version comes in two new colors: the Matte Yellow you see in these photos, plus a Meadow Green option.

In both cases, the outer is a soft matte PU coating that gives it a gentle feel but also adds plenty of grip, even when wet. At the top is a soft-to-touch power button topped by three LED lights to show which of the three settings you are using.

At the base is a cover which can be lifted to access the USB-C charging port. When closed, this creates a flat base so the brush can be stood up effectively. Up top is a metallic connector allowing you to swap heads with an easy slide on-and -off action. This is thanks to what the company calls an “advanced copper-free tufting process” which apparently prevents rust while keeping the heads in place.

The heads themselves are coated in soft food-grade TPE. The bristles themselves are ultra-fine to ensure they give the most accurate clean. Everything is IP68 waterproof which should mean you can give this a rinse under the tap without any worries.

Laifen Wave SE review: Features

(Image credit: Future)

50-day battery life
Fast 3-hour charging
USB-C port

Despite this offering both 60-degree oscillation movement and sonic vibrations at 26,000 per minute, this manages to deliver an impressive 50-day battery life, providing it’s kept on the softer setting. Then, when it comes to charging, the brush reaches back up to full in less than three hours. Crucially, the USB-C connection means you can use any old charging cable – a great feature when traveling, as you could use your phone charger if needed.

The oscillations themselves are a big part of the appeal: oscillating brushes are slightly higher by dentists, as you can see in our rotating vs sonic toothbrush examination. The oscillation mimics the kind of up and down action your dentist may have told you to do.

The app offers setting variations so you can find the ideal brush setup for you, including adjusting the level of vibration intensity, oscillation range and oscillation speed. These are presets available, so you can set up three separate presets on the brush and jump between them depending on what you want that day.

Brush heads are available from Laifen, but if you’re stuck out you can always pick up a Philips Sonicare head from a shop and that will also fit on the brush. It’s nice to see it’s not entirely proprietary.

(Image credit: Future)

Laifen Wave SE review: Performance

(Image credit: Future)

Powerful top-end
Long battery life
Highly adjustable

This brush offers a quiet setting at just 55db and an impressive 50-day battery life. But that’s on the gentle mode, which I found it to be far too weak. With the settings pumped up, I noticed the battery life did drop, and that noise jumped quite a bit louder. However, neither was to the point of being a problem and this will still get you more than a month of use – and the noise isn’t annoyingly loud – it brings the toothbrush more in line with its high-power contemporaries. What you have here, essentially, is a toothbrush with a low-power option.

The power button won’t allow you activate with a long hold or double-tap to change mode. So while you can have three preset modes, you’ll need to dig out the app to change them, which is frustrating, and it reset after charging. I had to dig out the app to get back to how I like it. Not ideal.

The brush handle did a great job of absorbing vibrations while the head still delivered a powerful brush to your teeth. It strikes that perfect balance of being comfortable in the hand while giving your teeth a good, deep clean. Changing heads was easy, charging was fast and simple, cleaning was a doddle and the brush packed a soft, grippy outer that makes using this a pleasure.

Laifen Wave SE: Scorecard

(Image credit: Future)Swipe to scroll horizontally

Laifen Wave SE: Should I buy?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Also consider

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Component

Oral-B iO Series 6

Colgate Hum Smart Rhythm

Battery life

20+ days

90 days

Movement

8,800 oscillations+ 20,000 pulsations per minute

30,000 vibrations per minutes

Charge time

12 hours

AAA batteries

Modes

Five

Two

How I tested

I used the Laifen Wave SE multiple weeks in order to test the effectiveness of the brush itself, along with battery performance. I used this for travel, overnight, and in various bathrooms with multiple chargers.

My brushing was twice daily with its two-minute timer and haptic half-minute guidance vibrations used to get a full and fair brush. I was also testing other brushes from Oral-B, which allowed me to see the difference between features like extra modes, oscillations versus sonics, battery life, apps and more.

September 24, 2025 0 comments

GoPro Max 2 review: worth the wait

by admin September 23, 2025

Why you can trust TechRadar

We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

GoPro Max 2: two-minute review

The GoPro Max 2 is GoPro’s long-awaited return to the 360 camera arena, and it arrives with the rugged build quality and intuitive design philosophy that has made the brand synonymous with action cameras for over a decade.

It’s a compact, square-bodied camera that takes clear design inspiration from its predecessor while incorporating lessons learned from rivals like the Insta360 X5 and DJI Osmo 360. The Max 2 is built tough – waterproof to 5m without additional housing and ready to handle the kind of punishment that extreme sports can dish out. What sets it apart from the competition is GoPro’s decision to make the lenses fully user-replaceable without tools, a smart move given how vulnerable 360 camera lenses are to damage.

At $499.99 / £449.99 / AU$849.95, the Max 2 is priced between the DJI Osmo 360 and the premium Insta360 X5, offering a middle-ground option that should appeal to GoPro loyalists and newcomers alike.

The standout feature here is what GoPro calls “true 8K” recording; the Max 2 delivers genuine 8K capture with at least 3840 active pixels on each axis, and the results are undeniably sharp and vibrant in good lighting conditions.

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

Design-wise, there’s plenty to appreciate too: a bright 1.82-inch touchscreen, GoPro’s famously simple two-button control scheme, built-in GPS, and compatibility with three separate mounting systems: the classic GoPro fingers, standard tripod threads, and the newer magnetic latch system. The camera feels reassuringly solid and well-balanced, whether in your hand or mounted on some other part of your body.

Video tops out at 8K 30fps in 360 mode, with 5.6K 60fps and 4K 100fps options for slow-motion work. The Max 2 also captures 29MP 360-degree stills and supports 10-bit color recording plus GP-Log flat profile for post-production color grading.

Performance is strong in daylight, delivering the punchy, colorful footage GoPro is known for, with minimal distortion, effective automatic stitching and selfie stick removal. However, the camera struggles more noticeably in low-light conditions compared to rivals that offer dedicated night modes, and thermal management can be an issue during extended recording sessions.

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

The Max 2 pairs with GoPro’s established Quik mobile app for quick editing and sharing, plus the updated GoPro Player desktop software for more comprehensive post-production work. Both offer solid 360 video editing tools, though at present neither quite matches the sophistication of Insta360’s software suite.

Ultimately, while the Max 2 doesn’t revolutionize the 360 camera market, it delivers exactly what I’d expect from GoPro. This is a well-built, user-friendly camera that produces excellent results in the right conditions, and it’s backed up by an ecosystem of accessories and editing tools that make the whole experience relatively painless. GoPro is well truly back in the 360 camera game.

Look out for my in-depth GoPro Max 2 vs Insta360 X5 comparison, based on real tests, coming soon

GoPro Max 2 specs

Swipe to scroll horizontallyDJI Osmo 360 specs

Type:

360 camera

Waterproof depth:

5m / 16ft

Screen:

1.82-inch touchscreen

Storage:

microSD

Connectivity:

USB-C, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth

Dimensions:

64 x 69.7 x 48.7mm / 2.4 x 1.4 x 3.2 inches

Weight:

195g / 6.88oz

The Max 2 mounted on GoPro’s selfie stick (Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

Today’s best GoPro Max 2 deals

GoPro Max 2: Price and availability

Launched worldwide on 23 September 2025
Pre-orders shipping 30 September 2025
Priced at $499.99 / £449.99 / AU$849.95

GoPro officially launched the Max 2 on September 23 2025, and it’s available to pre-order right away, with orders shipping from September 30.

It’s priced at $499.99 / £449.99 / AU$849.95 in a bundle that includes the camera and a single battery. At the time of writing I’ve not been informed of any bundles including accessories such as selfie sticks, microSD cards or extra batteries, but this section will be updated if that becomes the case.

This list price, which sits between the pricier Insta360 X5 and more affordable DJI Osmo 360, feels just about right to me. The Max 2 is a quality product and while being any cheaper would be a surprise, it’s clearly priced to compete with its closest rivals.

The GoPro Max 2 in the midst of its two main rivals, the DJI Osmo 360 and Insta360 X5 (Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

GoPro Max 2: Design

Waterproof to 5m / 16ft plus replaceable lenses
Mountable via tripod, magnetic latch or mounting fingers
1.82-inch rear touchscreen

The GoPro Max 2 looks similar to the original Max, favoring a squat, square design over the narrower candybar shape used by some 360 cameras. Constructed from tough plastic, it’s pretty discreet and unassuming, with the bright blue flashes of the GoPro logo and “Max 2” the only deviation from all-business dark grey. It’s slightly smaller than its closest recent rivals, the Insta360 X5 and DJI Osmo 360, but not to what I’d consider a significant degree.

As you’d expect from a GoPro camera, the Max 2 feels rugged and ready for adventure. While there’s no specific IP rating, GoPro says it’s waterproof to a depth of 5m and able to operate in cold temperatures. While the waterproof depth isn’t quite as impressive as on some rival cameras, GoPro told me a dive housing accessory offering more robust underwater protection is currently in development.

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

Crucially, GoPro has also made its lenses fully user-replaceable – and without the need for a tool, either, in a move that beats even the Insta360 X5’s lens replacement system. With 360 cameras’ lenses protruding so far out of the body, they’re highly vulnerable to damage, so making them simple (and relatively cheap) to swap out if something goes wrong is a great move from GoPro.

That being said, I did notice some condensation inside the lens when I went from indoors to outdoors, and it affected image quality (you can see it in the cycling sections of the videos embedded below). This could be fixed by removing the lens and wiping it with a microfiber cloth, then replacing it, but I found it an annoying issue to deal with. It’s not something I’ve encountered on other 360 cameras, and I suspect it might be due to the removeable lens design.

The pop-out mounting fingers make attaching the Max 2 to hundreds of existing mounts very simple (Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

The Max 2 is small and lightweight enough for easy mounting on everything from helmets to bikes to selfie sticks, and GoPro has thoughtfully made it compatible with three mounting options. You have classic GoPro mounting fingers, a rock-solid way to fix the camera to a huge range of first- and third-party mounts, as well a standard tripod thread and the newer GoPro magnetic latch mount.

Controls are beautifully simple. There are two large rubber buttons – one for power and switching shooting modes, another for image capture – and a bright and sharp 1.82-inch touchscreen for everything else. The Max 2’s UI is extremely simple and easy to get to grips with, even for someone (like me) who doesn’t shoot on GoPro cameras particularly often, and I doubt anyone even slightly familiar with action camera menu screens will struggle to master it quickly.

GoPro Max 2: Performance and features

Editing via Quik and GoPro Player apps
Built-in GPS
1,960mAh battery offers around an hour of 8K 30fps capture

With no built-in storage, footage and photos captured on the Max 2 are stored on microSD card, and can be quickly transferred wirelessly to a mobile device running the Quik app for editing and sharing.

I think Quik’s 360 video editor is pretty good, and I was able to swiftly reframe clips using manual keyframes or AI-assisted object tracking, plus tweak the image settings to achieve the look I wanted. Finished videos and photos can be saved to a phone’s camera roll, directly shared to social media or exported to other devices.

It’s also possible to edit on desktop, of course, and the updated GoPro Player app supports keyframe reframing but not, interestingly, AI-assisted tracking or image tweaking. GoPro says it’s getting a new denoise setting too, but this was greyed out and unavailable when I tested the app due to my M2-powered MacBook Air being not quite up to the task.

GoPro has informed me that both Adobe Premiere and DaVinci Resolve will be getting plug-ins allowing users to directly import the Max 2’s 360 files. Premiere support is due to be live by the end of 2025, with Resolve to follow later on.

One thing the Max 2 has that its DJI and Insta360 rivals don’t is built-in GPS, enabling users to embed location data in their footage and photos. Most other cameras either require an optional module or tethering to a smartphone for geotagging, so the Max 2, like the original Max, offers an edge there.

The battery, microSD slot and USB-C port are all located inside a single well-sealed compartment (Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

Despite the large vent on one side, the Max 2 does get warm during use. When I left it recording video, it turned itself off to avoid overheating with both 8K 30fps and 5.6K 30fps recording. With the 8K footage, it recorded just under 30 minutes of footage before shutting down; it lasted almost 58 minutes when recording 5.6K footage. This was indoors at room temperature, and I did find that setting it up outdoors on a chilly autumn day allowed it to record for longer, as would actual outdoor pursuits scenarios.

GoPro doesn’t specify battery life from the 1,960mAh battery, but I managed to get just over an hour of 8K 30fps footage recorded when leaving the camera running outdoors. I think this performance is quite good given the bit rate and resolution of the videos being recorded, but those planning a long day of 360 shooting might want to invest in one or two extra batteries.

The camera features six built-in microphones – more than either of its main rivals (Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

The Max 2, like the original Max, features six separate built-in mics, but here they offer directional audio capture. Neither the DJI Osmo 360 or Insta360 X5 offer six mics, but despite this I wouldn’t necessarily say the Max 2 outright beats its rivals here: audio sounds absolutely fine in good conditions, but when the wind picks up the built-in wind reduction tech can’t do much to suppress the noise.

GoPro says the Max 2 can be used with Apple AirPods and other Bluetooth earbuds for wireless mic input, and this may help avoid the wind issue, but bringing out a dedicated DJI Mic-style wireless mic may be the best solution the company could offer further down the line.

GoPro Max 2: Image quality

Captures 10-bit 8K 30fps / 5.6K 60fps / 4K 100fps video
29MP 360 photos and 12MP single-lens photos
Up to 300Mbps video bit rate with GoPro Labs

GoPro has been keen to point out that the Max 2 is the only 360 camera that records what it calls “true 8K” resolution 360 video. The company claims rivals like Insta360 and DJI are essentially fudging the numbers in order to claim 8K capture – either by counting unused or overlapped pixels, or by upscaling output to 8K from lower resolution sources – whereas the Max 2’s 360 output is truly 8K with at least 3840 active pixels on each axis for both sensors.

Video can be shot at up to 10-bit quality and in either a standard color profile or the flat GP-Log mode for post-shoot grading, and the maximum video bit rate is 120Mbps, or 300Mbps for users of GoPro Labs. For the purposes of this review, I stuck with 120Mbps. I did try out GP-Log, but GoPro has yet to release a LUT at the time of writing and I found grading the footage more of a slog than I’d like. Once the LUT is out things should get a lot easier there.

Video quality is generally very strong, whether recording in 8K (which is capped at 30fps) or 5.6K (which can go up to 60fps, offering users the potential to use 2x slow-motion; a 4K 100fps option is also available for those who want even more slow-motion potential). GoPro has established itself as delivering colors that look good straight out of the camera, as well as minimal distortion and flare.

Mostly that’s the case here, although I found that some of my 360 videos looked a touch overexposed and washed out in bright skies – likely as a result of having to set exposure for a full 360º view rather than in a single direction. User intervention, by setting the exposure manually, could improve things here, but in general the results are strong.

Still photos are similarly good-looking, and while I tweaked the below example slightly using the Quik app, it’s basically fresh out of the camera.

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

At night, the Max 2 isn’t as impressive. Both the DJI Osmo 360 and Insta360 X5 have dedicated low light modes for 360 video, but with the Max 2 you’re left with the standard mode, and it’s noisy and smeary after dark. It’s possible that using GP-Log and some clever settings before editing in post could yield better results; I didn’t have time to delve into this, so I can’t say for sure – but what I can say is that both the Osmo 360 and X5 make capturing usable low light footage very easy, while the Max 2 doesn’t.

So, if low light footage is a priority for you, the Max 2 may not be the ideal 360 camera. If, however, you’re capturing footage in daylight and want the very cleanest, sharpest 8K around, I think it’s the best at doing it.

The camera includes a wide range of capture modes besides standard 360 videos and photos: time lapse modes, dedicated single-lens shooting modes and more. I’ve included a quick clip I captured using the Night Lapse mode in the sample video above.

GoPro Max 2: testing scorecard

Swipe to scroll horizontallyGoPro Max 2

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Price

Cheaper than the Insta360 X5, slightly pricier than the DJI Osmo 360.

4/5

Design

Great mounting options, rugged build and easily replaced lenses. Just watch for the condensation.

5/5

Performance

Good apps and battery life, but can overheat.

4/5

Image quality

Beats the X5 and Osmo 360 in broad daylight, but can’t match either in challenging after-dark conditions.

5/5

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

Should I buy the GoPro Max 2?

Buy it if…

You’re invested in the GoPro ecosystem
Got boxes of GoPro mounts and a subscription? The Max 2 slots right into the GoPro range, so if you’re already a fan you’ll be at home immediately.

You’re a risk-taker
The Max 2 is small and rugged, making it ideal for extreme sports. Its lenses are also very easy to replace in the field – no tool required.

You like things simple
The Max 2’s minimal controls, simple app and great out-of-the-camera image quality make it one of the easiest 360 cameras to use.

Don’t buy it if…

You shoot after dark or indoors
While it shines in broad daylight, the low light performance of the Max 2 just can’t match that of its DJI and Insta360 rivals.

You want built-in storage
A small thing, but the Osmo 360’s built-in storage means you don’t need to fumble for microSD cards – with the Max 2, you do.

Also consider

The X5’s rugged build, replaceable lenses, low-light performance, ease of use and battery life have made it our top pick ahead of the Max 2’s arrival. Its weight and profile aren’t as wearable as the Max 2, however, and I think the Max 2’s daylight image quality is slightly better.

Read our full Insta360 X5 review

A cheap and cheerful alternative to the GoPro Max 2, Akaso’s first 360 camera is surprisingly capable. Like the Max 2, it’s designed with outdoor daytime use in mind, but its overall image quality level is several notches below.

Read our full Akaso 360 review

How I tested the DJI Osmo 360

Tested camera running v01.09.71 firmware for four days
Camera mounted on invisible selfie stick, helmet, bike and chest harness
Recorded videos day and night on foot and cycling

GoPro sent me a review sample of the Max 2 a week ahead of the launch date, and it was updated to run v01.09.71 firmware. This meant full launch features, as far as I’m aware, enabling me to test all the shooting modes and image quality – which I did by taking the camera out in the field mounted to various things (bike, head, helmet, chest, selfie stick).

I tested it in various lighting and weather conditions, editing the resulting videos and photos using both GoPro apps: the Quik mobile app and the GoPro Player desktop app (the latter on my M2 MacBook Air, which sadly wasn’t powerful enough to make use of the app’s Denoise feature).

First reviewed September 2025

GoPro Max 2: Price Comparison

September 23, 2025 0 comments

Blippo+ Review – I Promise You’ve Never Played Anything Like This

by admin September 23, 2025

Blippo+ is certainly one of the strangest games you could play this year–or any year, really. Released on Steam, Switch, and Playdate (the small yellow handheld famous for its crank controls), it strains the fundamental definition of a video game. Instead, it’s more of a simulation of TV channel-surfing in the late ’80s or early ’90s, a kind of interaction younger generations actually have no experience with. It’s a game whose target audience would seem to be very few people at all. And yet, because I enjoy exceptionally weird experiences, it delivers.

Blippo+ is a collection of live-action skits meant to play like a cable television package from 30ish years ago. When you first start up the game, it “scans” for channels–a process I vaguely recalled interacting with as a kid when Blippo+ reminded me. Then, once its dozen or so channels are found, you simply… watch TV.

The TV schedule plays out in real time. These are not on-demand offerings a la Netflix or HBO Max. This is a perpetually cycling programming schedule. If you tune into the news channel, for example, you’ll miss what’s happening at the same time on the music, family or–yes–even the porn channel. Each program only lasts a few minutes, so it’s not as though you’re locked in for 30 or more minutes if you want to watch any single program in its entirety. This also makes it easy enough to eventually catch everything, either by channel-surfing routinely like a kid after school in 1996, or by sticking with one channel at a time until it has looped fully, then moving onto the next channel.

Every show becomes a micro-story you can follow for several in-game weeks at a time.

The story of Blippo+ is that you, the player, have tuned into TV signals from an alien world called Blip. Its inhabitants look like us, only with a fashion sense that colorfully combines Clinton-era garb with makeup and hairdos that feel noticeably extraterrestrial.

Its TV shows are similarly out of this world. Cooking shows walk you through how to prepare vegetables that don’t exist on Earth. A woman with a literal third eye hosts a mystical, horoscope-focused show. Most interestingly, early news programs in the show’s many hours of programming discuss the revelation that some tens of thousands of PeeDees (the ubiquitous smartphone-like devices on planet Blip) have been activated elsewhere in the universe. Essentially, you play the role of interloper, rubber-necking at another world whose signals you’ve inadvertently picked up.

This concept would likely work best on the Playdate, the already-strange device that releases games on a weekly schedule, giving its players a schedule to opt into and discuss on Reddit, YouTube, and Discord. Canonically, the Playdate itself is the PeeDee device that everyone on Blip owns and lives by. I didn’t get to play it on that platform, but I found Blippo+ achieves its main goal on Steam too, especially since I played it with a controller and let myself feel like I really was channel-surfing, like maybe you did in the old days.

One of the coolest aspects of Blippo+ is its TV Guide-like channel. At the risk of sounding like an old man, back in my day, you’d watch the TV Guide channel to see what’s on now and what’s coming on later. You’d then have to make yourself available for whatever interested you. Blippo’s guide channel amusingly captures this defunct experience, with filler music and narration filling in the space as the programs unfold with or without you tuning into them. No matter what you’re watching, it’s also filtered with that peak drabness of the 1990s, pre-HD and noticeably drained of color.

The cooking shows had an oddly unsettling effect, as I watched these alien crops be prepared for dishes.

On Playdate, new content for Blippo+ has dropped every Thursday to flesh out the game’s overarching storyline, in which different programs call back to one another. Meanwhile, the residents of Blip grapple with the existence of otherworldly voyeurs such as yourself, which becomes appointment television, a meta-serial about other planets and the weirdos who live there.

On Steam and Switch, those content drops are instead unlocked as you watch more of the shows. Roughly every 30-40 minutes in my several hours with the game, I’d get a notification that more content was available. It’s handled this way because Playdate devotees have been unraveling the weekly Blippo+ drops for months now, whereas those on traditional PC and console are playing catch-up. This hinders the communal aspect of Blippo+, which I find appealing, but that’s not to say the project falls apart without this piece intact.

Blippo+ is a game by and for Theater Kids most of all, though I enjoyed my time with it despite not being one myself. Each skit has a dry humor and an undercurrent of adoration for acting and the arts that will absolutely be alienating–no pun intended–for some players. Even some of those who like the idea of simulating this quintessential ’90s experience of couch-potatoing away your Saturday with Blippo’s soap operas and music videos may find that these skits don’t quite fulfill the fantasy.

Scrolling the TV Guide-like channel is either going to be nostalgic… or appropriately alien.

That’s because, for as great a job as Blippo+ does at actually simulating the physical element of half-mindedly flipping channels like a kid procrastinating on their homework, the many shows developed for Blippo+ ultimately feel too similar in tone. They’re all going for a dry, silly weirdness. In my eight or so hours with Blippo+, I didn’t see anything that took itself too seriously. Maybe it wouldn’t have worked, or the creators just weren’t interested in that side of its imaginary people. Or maybe that’s their way of saying planet Blip really is just a bunch of one-note dweebs who never take things too seriously.

Still, I most appreciated Blippo+ for its indirect parodies of TV shows from our world. A Bill Nye-like scientist spent his shows interviewing guests like a brain in a jar, who was said to be one of Blip’s most famous philosophers. I could read reviews about a series called “Werf’s Tavern,” which spoofs something like a Doctor Who, right down to the poorly aged depictions of some would-be harmful stereotypes. The pornography channel, Zest, comically captures the formative ’90s experience of trying to de-scramble the imagery while saxophones cut through the static. One of my favorite series, Realms Beyond, tells spooky anthological stories a la The Twilight Zone, but does so via spoken word, making it more like a radio show than Serling’s seminal sci-fi series.

Blippo+ rarely parodies any specific series and is instead more interested in capturing certain vibes or subgeneres–stitchings of moments in time from yesteryear. Like on my home planet, Blip’s programming isn’t all worth watching, but there are some gems on rotation for those who care to make a lazy weekend out of it.

Like my older brother in 1996, you can try your best to de-scramble the porn channel.

Blippo+ feels like an art school project that broke containment and went international. What the team has done with a seemingly shoestring budget makes for a laudable DIY effort. Calling this a game could mislead some users, given it’s really more like a ’90s-colored cable TV package without any on-demand features. It’s interactive, yes, but only in the way one’s TV was in the mid-’90s. This sort of experience is sure to be unlike anything else you’ve ever played–and for younger players, anything they’ve even experienced in the first place–though a significant number of people will surely come out of it more confused than amused. Still, if you can match Blippo’s vibe, you may find yourself homesick for another world.

September 23, 2025 0 comments

Baby Steps Review – Unhappy Feet

by admin September 23, 2025

I spent the majority of my time reviewing Baby Steps in various states of anger, ranging from mild annoyance to controller-throwing rage, but when it intends to make me feel this way, it’s hard to deny that Baby Steps is effective. “Ragebait” games like this one are supposed to elicit that response. I appreciate how Baby Steps commits to the bit by making the player the brunt of the joke, along with its surreal story. Still, its frustrating difficulty, paired with occasionally poorly designed levels, kept me from laughing alongside it.

In the opening cutscene, Nate, a pathetic man who lives in his parents’ basement, is transported to a mysterious mountain. Through a series of awkward conversations, he learns he’ll have to reach the summit to make a wish to go home. However, Nate is also so socially awkward that, hilariously, he refuses almost every offer of help so as not to bother his fellow climbers. He turns down shoes, climbing equipment, and a map (complete with a minimap and compass in the corner), none of which you ever get, making the game laughably more difficult.

The cherry on top, and the game’s premise, is that players control Nate one leg at a time, stumbling through the whole journey and often falling down. The controls are intentionally clumsy, with the left and right triggers lifting their respective legs. While it initially feels impossible, it’s oddly satisfying to walk once you get the rhythm down. Of course, challenges quickly escalate from slight, hilly inclines to intricate balancing acts, ratcheting up the difficulty. To make things worse, getting off balance, which happens constantly, immediately locks Nate into a ragdoll state, causing him to fall until he reaches a stable position. The hardest climbs of Baby Steps aren’t just frustrating because of their difficulty, but because you have to do them again and again until you prevail onto the next section.

Bennett Foddy’s past work (he’s best known for Getting Over It and QWOP) is characterized by a steep difficulty curve, and Baby Steps is no exception, though it was more approachable than I expected. The key to this, especially in earlier areas, is how the semi-open world is peppered with optional challenges. If you want a tougher experience, simply turn at the next fork in the road, and you’ll find a difficult path or structure to explore, but if you stick to the main path, the walk will remain manageable. Optional challenges reward collectible hats and fruit that unlock new story content, granting devoted players an incentive to take on tougher challenges.

Where Baby Steps really stumbles is in its later levels, where the paths forward are poorly telegraphed. Moving Nate anywhere other than where he needs to go is a risk because at any given moment, you could (and probably will) make a wrong step and fall to an earlier area. It’s maddening, then, to be stuck in an area with no idea where to go, and no idea if the arduous climb you’re attempting is even required. On several occasions, I made my way into a later area by doing a climb I felt I wasn’t supposed to be doing. It wasn’t hard in a way that seemed intended, but rather like I was clinging to random bits of geometry and eventually prevailing. For every unclear path that did lead to a way forward, I tried and failed to progress through three more; the only indication I was in the right area was that I eventually moved forward. It’s hard to commit to tough challenges when it’s not clear whether it’s designed for me to attempt.

These failed attempts, however, are undeniably silly. Baby Steps is funny, but instead of inviting players in on the joke, the players become the joke. To play Baby Steps is to be pranked left and right, to be forced into unreasonably difficult situations armed only with your sweaty onesie and two bare feet. This is a game designed for streamers, which is to say that it’s more fun to watch than it is to experience yourself: When someone else is the subject of Baby Steps’ pranks, it’s far more tolerable. Hours into the game, I’d become desensitized to the absurdity of it all, but whenever my partner saw Nate flopping around on the screen, she laughed aloud. Failure, though it’s frustrating as a player, is funny, and Baby Steps capitalizes on that.

The other aesthetics, from visuals to music, are surreal and bizarre. Nate is constantly encountering anthropomorphic horse men who are nude from the waist down, a fact no one acknowledges. Bringing a hat back to camp triggers a Game Boy-style dream sequence about Nate’s past. At one point, I woke up to see a giant woman lift me off my feet, cradle me like a baby, set me down on a high ledge, and leave. The music, meanwhile, is an experimental rhythm of sound effects, playing various clicks, scrapes, splashes, and animal noises in repetitive sequence. It adds to the world’s odd vibe, but I mostly found these tracks annoying and grating, and would have preferred something just a touch more melodic or approachable.

My feelings about the music extend to the whole of Baby Steps, I suppose. I see what they are going for. I understand why and how it’s funny. And I appreciate how unique it is, but I would be lying if I said I enjoyed it. It’s a truly singular experience, something we will always need more of in games. Some will enjoy struggling to climb sandy dunes and laughing at their friends falling down the same cliffside for the hundredth time, but no amount of creative appreciation will change how I felt playing Baby Steps. Every time I put the controller down, I dreaded picking it back up.

September 23, 2025 0 comments

Baby Steps review – is it possible to love and hate a game at the same time

by admin September 23, 2025

Baby Steps walks a fine line between frustration and accomplishment to provide a walking simulator and climbing experience quite unlike anything else.

Never has a plank of wood held such dramatic tension. You will glimpse it on the path ahead, bridging a gap, and it will cause a moment of heart-stopping hesitation. It might produce such a feeling of fear you’ll backtrack, or look for another way around – it depends how many times you’ve been here before. You need to walk the plank but can you reliably put your feet where you want them to go? That’s the question. Hesitating preserves your hard-won progress and the efforts you’ve put into the climb so far, which hasn’t been easy. Stepping on the plank risks losing it. One small misadjustment and you’ll slip, and fall all the way down, down again.

Baby Steps review

Developer: Bennett Foddy, Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Platform: Played on PC
Availability: Out today on PC (Steam) and PlayStation 5

I fell a lot in Baby Steps. You will fall a lot in Baby Steps. Everyone will fall a lot in Baby Steps. This is a game about falling, and about getting back up again. It’s a game of risky gaps and exorbitant-feeling punishments for failing to cross them. A torturous game of snakes and ladders played out across a landscape in front of you and around you. But it’s not all pain. There’s an unexpected gentleness and tranquility here, and a much more forgiving experience than you might be expecting.

Baby Steps is the new game from frustration-courting guru Bennett Foddy (in collaboration with Ape Out and UFO 50 maker Gabe Cuzzillo, and Dance Central and Ape Out maker Maxi Boch) who made QWOP and Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy. The former is a finger-tying game about controlling a sprinter’s limbs while running a race, which is incredibly difficult to do. The latter is a climbing game where a climber in a cauldron (don’t ask) levers themselves up and over a mountain using a sledgehammer. It’s also incredibly difficult, and it also involves many infuriating falls back to the bottom of the mountain. Baby Steps is similar. Baby Steps is a mush of them both.

Literally, it’s a walking simulator, where you control the legs of the game’s main character Nate, a couch potato who falls asleep and wakes up in a surreal dream-world. You need to explore said dream world but discover fairly quickly that walking isn’t as easy to do as you thought. It’s manual. Each step involves pulling a controller trigger to lift a leg and then pushing a thumbstick forward to shift the leg and move your weight so you can take a step. Most early attempts end up with you, Nate, face down on the floor, wobbling around like a beached seal. But it soon levels out; walking on a flat surface becomes reliably doable, with only occasional flops, which is an important concession in a game where there’s a lot of walking to do.

This minecart track gave me serious problems. What you don’t see: the significant drop below and the 15 minutes of careful climbing I had to do to get to this point. Also, top right: would you have the guts to get that hat? And top left: a bridge across a mud slide.

But complications come with obstacles. To begin with, it’s a fallen tree in your path, which requires a higher step than you’re used to taking, or a step-up to something you’ll need to take. And initially, you’ll marvel at a game that can ask so much of you when you’re struggling to even walk, but with each cluster of attempts, a deeper understanding of Nate’s movement will sink in; he’s actually a capable mover if you know how. Soon, then, you’ll step over logs without stopping to think, and begin tackling hills or rocky climbs or, yes, the dreaded wooden planks bridging gaps.

Inevitably, you’ll fall. You’ll place a foot wrong and slip and tumble, and slide down a long muddy slide to the foot of the hill, leaving Nate groaning on the floor. Why did the muddy slide have to be so long, you’ll wonder, and the plank so small? It’s in these moments Baby Steps will seem overly cruel, willing to take rather than give. And you’ll wilt at the thought of retracing your steps and hesitate more the next time you face the plank. But as far as cruelty is concerned, there’s an important invisible helping hand here to point out.

Baby Steps has options. Baby Steps has a semi-open kind of world, which means routes aren’t prescribed for you. Choke-points aren’t entirely unavoidable. Several routes will be loosely scattered around an area and it’s up to you which one you choose, which means, if a plank-cross is destroying you, you can leave it and try another way. You’re rarely ever forced to bang your head against one climb only, which is a blessed relief. It doesn’t mean alternative climbs will be any easier but it helps break up the flow and ease psychological blocks.

The genius of this semi-open world is having space for optional challenges on your path. You’ll notice, as you walk towards your broadly defined goal – a light on a hill, say – a crumbling spire or a ruined tower, or a tree, and wonder what’s at the top of it. This is a climbing game after all, so a climbing challenge holds an obvious allure. But you normally never know what’s at the top, unless you can see a glowing object there. And there’s an irreverent strain of humour running through the game that might mean there really isn’t anything at the top when you get there. It makes me smile.

A literal banana peel at the top! Sadists! This whole climb had banana peels all over it.

Optional challenges can be very hard, which they’re allowed to be because they’re optional. Or rather, they can feel very hard because you’ll often encounter them when you haven’t learnt the skills to tackle them yet – not unless you’re playing for a second time. Usually, you’ll attempt them, fail, and wonder how on earth you’re supposed to overcome something like that, then eventually give up and walk away. This is the beauty of optional: failing here doesn’t harm your main progress, which gives you the confidence to give them a go. And giving them a go is important because it teaches you things.

If you only ever walk along gradually sloping inclines between danger-planks, as I’ve come to call them, you’ll never get used to crossing the planks themselves. But if you try and climb a ruined tower that’s full of danger-planks, for instance, you will become much accustomed to them, such that when you reach the next plank you’ll wonder what you were so afraid of. These optional challenges not only provide the game with breadth and replayability, then; they prepare you for what lies ahead.

Plus, the extra space of the world provides breathing space of its own – crucial in a game which features tense challenge after tense challenge. Put all that tension in a sequence with no relief and people wouldn’t be able to cope with it. Broken up with sections of hassle-free walks across pleasant countryside or beside rushing rivers – the game is full of calming environments, necessarily so – and Baby Steps provides important moments of calm. And it’s in these moments you can ponder deeper thoughts, such as how taken for granted walking is, and what’s actually going on in this dream-world Nate found himself in. There is a story here, albeit an abstract, withheld one, full of inexplicably naked donkey men, but there’s enough mystery to pull you like a fishline through.

Baby Steps starts off in a grungey place but takes you to some beautiful biomes as the game progresses.

The story also provides another very welcome feature in the form of chapters, which progress with each bonfire you find. Each one signifies a change of environment and time of day, which provides much needed variation, both visually and mechanically, but each chapter also comes with something of an invisible safety net around it, which I really like. For instance: I struggled enormously in a ravine with a rapid underneath it because I had to climb a rickety ruined minecart track to get out, and I kept falling back down, many metres, into the ravine below. It’d take me ages to get back up but I couldn’t get around the minecart in the middle of the track at the top. A chokepoint.

But each time I fell into the water below, I would be swept away but, crucially, not over the edge of a waterfall and dumped into an earlier part of the world below. The game could do this quite easily; instead it would magically loop me back around and deposit me back where I began my minecart climb. The journey in the water would even present me with a couple of other possible climb locations along the way. So you see: an invisible safety net and multiple options, and it’s like this wherever in the world you go. Mostly. There is definitely a sense of a helping hand here.

Nevertheless, frustration will be what people talk about when they talk about Baby Steps, of that I have no doubt. I experienced it and you will experience it, and everyone who plays it will experience it. When I compared notes with Jim from the video team, he told me he’d rage-quit one night because of a cactus blocking a plank in a desert area of the game that he couldn’t get around. Cactus plank, he called it. I don’t remember that plank – perhaps I didn’t go there – but it’s an example of how lingo will crop up around notorious places in this game. “Mate, did you do the Manbreaker?” There is actually a climb called the Manbreaker in the game, and you’ll know why when you see it. Undeniably, this is a game that delights in finding imaginative ways to challenge you, and sometimes all you can do when presented with some of them – with, say, an escalator going backwards – is admire the deviousness and laugh. You wicked, wicked people.

But the flipside is immense satisfaction when you overcome one of these wickedly devised climbs. A sense of beating the odds. It’s amazing to me how a game about only moving your feet can be so impactful. There are no monsters to fight here – there’s no combat at all. This is a still and sedate world. Yet the hearth-thumping thrills I’ve felt playing this game have been so strong I could hear my heart in my ears. My palms have been so sweaty I thought I’d drop my controller. I have felt The Fear. And I have

Baby Steps accessibility options

Subtitles, hearing impaired subtitles, nudity on/off, center dot, scalable UI, remappable keys and controller

revelled in a sense of accomplishment when overcoming it. I now relish challenges as a chance to test the skills I believe I’ve accrued. I see climbs in a different way. And again, it amazes me so much can come from, seemingly, so little.

How you cope with frustration will determine how you cope with Baby Steps, but – I stress again – it’s more approachable and forgiving than I assume many people will make out. That doesn’t mean it won’t infuriate you, or that you won’t curse at it and clench your jaw and throttle your controller, wondering why ragdoll Nate doesn’t get up quicker and why he always has to slide so far. But these quirks are Baby Steps, ragged though it can sometimes be. This is a game that behaves in its own way, and there is nothing else out there like it.

A copy of Baby Steps was provided for review by Devolver Digital.

September 23, 2025 0 comments

A female photographer holding the DJI osmo Nano

DJI Osmo Nano review: a tiny modular action cam big that’s big on quality

by admin September 23, 2025

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DJI Osmo Nano: two-minute review

The DJI Osmo Nano is the latest in the brand’s line of action cameras. Rather than building on a predecessor it’s a whole new concept in its own right, although it shares the same-sized 1/1.3-inch CMOS sensor as the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro, which landed at the end of 2024.

The range of best action cameras is more diverse today than it was even just a few years ago. The one-block shops of design like the GoPro Hero 13 Black are still popular, for sensible reasons like ruggedness and extended battery times, but modular designs like the Osmo Nano and the new Insta360 Go Ultra are becoming more common.

Why? We don’t just want to hold our action cams or use a fiddly mount to attach them to our bike handlebars anymore. The content creation universe is continuing to grow, and so is the number and variety of places where we need our cameras to go.

In a nutshell, the Osmo Nano is a light, wearable action camera. You can wear it around your neck, on your head, on a hat or helmet, plonk it on your car, bike, or even attach it to your dog. It’s remarkably small, and at 52g it’s a gram lighter than its main competitor, the Insta360 Go Ultra, released a month before it.

The product is modular in design and built as a two-piece system, with a tiny, standalone camera unit that pairs with the Multifunctional Vision Dock underneath. The dock acts as a remote, screen, and charging station, with a small but bright 1.9-inch display to help you compose shots and adjust settings.

(Image credit: Lauren Scott)

These two parts join together via two clips and a strong magnetic system, and it’s this magnet that also allows the camera to snap onto DJI’s various accessories, for a wide range of hands-free, wearable mounting options.

Although the camera is a fully IPX8-rated unit that’s waterproof down to 10m, the dock is only IPX4-rated for splash resistance, which limits its use in heavy rain or near a body of water – a totally rugged design this is not.

Inside the camera is a 1/1.3-inch CMOS sensor, which captures a dynamic range of up to 13.5 stops according to DJI. I haven’t done any calculations with my test images on this, but I did find great levels of detail and color in bright sky highlights as well as darker, shadowy areas like tunnels. I was genuinely impressed by the level of detail and tone the camera could capture, particularly for a sensor this small (in full-frame terms).

For me, DJI has always been a brand for what I’d call ‘serious’ creators, and that’s something I’m pleased to see the brand has leaned into with the Osmo Nano. There aren’t any ‘fun’ filters or gimmicks in the menus. Instead, the settings are pared back to sensible and helpful options; voice controls and gestures to start recording all work very well to make hands-free shooting that much easier.

A big draw for professionals is the color performance. I was surprised to discover that the Osmo Nano can record in 10-bit color with D-Log M and HLG profiles – a pro-level feature that gives you more leeway for color grading in post-production, if you want to edit manually rather than relying on the automatic outputs from the DJI Mimo app. In 10-bit, I found videos were punchy but still well-balanced.

(Image credit: Lauren Scott)

Performance-wise, the Osmo Nano delivers exceptionally well in some areas but underwhelms in others. The promise of rapid file transfer holds up, with the 128GB version clocking transfer speeds of up to 600MB/s over a USB 3.1 connection. This is a huge time-saver.

Battery life, however, is a clear limitation. While DJI claims up to 90 minutes from the camera and 200 minutes with the dock, I found that shooting at 4K/60fps got me closer to just 60 minutes of continuous recording. On the upside, the dock’s ability to fast-charge the camera to 80% in about 20 minutes means you can be back to shooting in no time.

The RockSteady 3.0 and HorizonBalancing stabilization features work well for walking or light activity, and even when I tried recording star jumps and high-intensity workouts, the footage was stable in sports mode. Audio quality is good all-round too, and two built-in microphones capture immersive stereo sound, with decent but not brilliant wind reduction. Another plus for more advanced creators is the ability to pair the Nano with two mics separately, and you won’t need receivers if they’re from DJI.

While the image quality is good for a camera this small, it’s still bound by the limitations of its form factor. The fixed 143-degree ultra-wide field of view is great for first-person shots, but obviously lacks the versatility of a more zoomed-in lens. And while DJI’s SuperNight mode for low-light shooting is better than ever, it’s limited to 30fps and 8-bit color.

(Image credit: Lauren Scott)

Today’s best DJI Osmo Nano deals

The Osmo Nano is pricing is really aggressive, coming in much cheaper than the Insta360 Go Ultra and the GoPro Hero 13 Black – and that’s with built-in storage too, meaning you can start shooting straight out of the box.

It’s not necessarily the most charming camera I’ve tested, but it’s thoroughly dependable and sensible, and for that reason I found it growing on me, while the low price sweetens the deal. The DJI Mimo app is less intuitive than Insta360’s, and AI edits are a little less exciting, but it’s smart and stable, and puts a clear live feed with access to settings at your fingertips on your smartphone.

DJI isn’t marketing the Osmo Nano for family users, and it lacks some of the fun features of the Insta360 lineup, plus Toddler Titan mode for capturing kids. While charging is fairly speedy it doesn’t charge as quickly as its main competitor, the Insta360 Go Ultra, either, but the camera does last longer.

If you need a fully rugged and all-in-one device for more extreme sports or environments, the GoPro Hero 13 Black or the DJI Action 5 Pro might be a better choice. But this is a well-thought-out, truly wearable action camera for creators who want to experiment with unique perspectives, and need a B-camera for places their main camera can’t go, for a B-cam price.

(Image credit: Lauren Scott)

DJI Osmo Nano: specs

Swipe to scroll horizontallyDJI Osmo Nano specs

Sensor

1/1.3-inch CMOS

Max Resolution

35MP (6880 x 5160) photos
4K, 60fps footage

Weight

Camera: 2.54oz / 53g Vision dock: 3.8oz / 72g

Dimensions

Camera: 57 x 29 x 28mm
Vision Dock: 59 x 42 x 22mm

ISO Range

100–25600

Lens

FOV: 143 degrees
Aperture: f/2.8
Focus: 0.35m to ∞

Operating Time

Camera: 90 mins*
Camera + Multifunctional Vision Dock: 200 mins*

Connectivity

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB-C 3.1

Storage

64GB/128GB built-in
microSD card, up to 1TB

Waterproofing

Camera: 33ft (10m)
Vision Dock: IPX4-Rated

DJI Osmo Nano: Price and availability

Launched worldwide on September 23 2025, except US
Osmo Nano Standard Combo (64GB) costs £239 / AU$529
Osmo Nano Standard Combo (128GB) costs £259 / AU$589

The DJI Osmo Nano was announced on August 23, 2025, and is now shipping from DJI’s online store and authorized retailers, including Amazon. It won’t be available officially in the United States at launch. A DJI Spokesperson told TechRadar that “DJI remains dedicated to the US market and is optimizing our strategy to best serve our customers amidst evolving local conditions.”

There are two standard combos to choose between, broken down by the internal storage capacity: the Osmo Nano Standard Combo at 64GB (£239 / AU$529) or 128GB (£259 / AU$589).

Each combo comes with the same content, including the Osmo Nano Camera, Multifunctional Vision Dock, Magnetic Hat Clip, Magnetic Lanyard, a protective case, USB-C cable (USB 3.1), and a Dual-Direction Magnetic Ball-Joint Adapter Mount. The protective case is more just a plastic sheath rather than substantial padded protection.

That price puts it way below the Insta360 Go Ultra Standard Combo ($449.99 / £369 / AU$759), which is more impressive given that you get built-in storage too. It’s also less than the GoPro Hero 13 Black (now available for around $359.99 / £315).

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(Image credit: Lauren Scott)(Image credit: Lauren Scott)(Image credit: Lauren Scott)(Image credit: Lauren Scott)

DJI Osmo Nano: Design

Standalone camera is waterproof, dock is splashproof
Magnetic base connects easily to mounts
The camera weighs 1.83oz / 52g

The DJI Osmo Nano camera is oblong-shaped, about half as wide as it is long. It sits comfortably between your thumb and forefinger in either portrait or landscape mode, but I didn’t find it as pocketable as the Insta360 Go Ultra because of its extra depth.

Without the dock, the Osmo is a light, wearable action camera at just 52g. Adding the dock, by way of two secure mounting clips and a magnetic, adds another 72g and turns the camera into a more complete action companion. It’s small, but I found the combo top-heavy on uneven surfaces, making low-level shots without a mount more difficult.

There’s just one built-in OLED HD touchscreen on the dock, rather than a screen at the front and back, or a flippable design like the Insta360 Go Ultra. This means you have to detach and remount the camera every time you want to go from shooting your environment to talking to the camera (if you want to see yourself, that is). Unlike the Go Ultra, which simply plops back into place with strong magnets, flipping the Osmo Nano around is a bit fiddly.

The design is gray and plastic, which is familiar territory for both DJI and action cams in general. The body is subtly textured though, meaning it’s easy to grab onto with cold, wet or sweaty hands. Ruggedness is key for an action camera, but only the wearable part of the Osmo Nano is waterproof. The camera is IPX8-rated for submersion up to 10 metres underwater.

The dock is only splash, rain and likely sweat resistant, and I wouldn’t fancy its chances in a heavy rain shower. This is a shame, because it limits potential usage and introduces a little caution to creativity when shooting. It’s also a far cry from DJI’s Action 5 Pro, which is verified down to 20m / 65ft.

(Image credit: Lauren Scott)

While the dock isn’t waterproof, you can use the whole product in temperatures of -20C to 45C (-4F to 113F), so you’re good for everything from winter sports to desert treks. A lens cover screws over the main lens, so if you damage or scratch it a replacement costs a fraction of buying a whole new unit.

The Osmo Nano has just two physical controls: there’s a big red record button on the top of the camera and another on one side of the dock. These also act as power switches, and they require some force to push down so that you’re not likely to press them accidentally. That’s it, other than a small flap that opens up on the other side of the dock to reveal the USB 3.1 port for charging and transferring files, plus the microSD slot, which takes up to a 1TB card.

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(Image credit: Lauren Scott)(Image credit: Lauren Scott)(Image credit: Lauren Scott)

I didn’t find the DJI Osmo Nano as enjoyable or easy to navigate as other action cameras I’ve tested. You swipe up to access video settings, down for the main menu, and left to change the shooting mode. To toggle Pro Mode on or off, you tap the slider icon on the right side of the screen.

It’s not rocket science, but at 1.96 inches the small screen means you need to be extra precise with your touch gestures to bring up menus and dial in settings. My partner – who has bigger hands and fingers than I – sometimes had to tap the screen a few times to activate settings.

The menus are mainly black and white with yellow accents, and I found this less eye-catching than the GoPro or Insta360 ecosystems, although that may be more a matter of personal preference. Some settings are also overlaid on the live picture and can be difficult to read. The camera doesn’t have the same detailed tutorials and guides that you get when you start using the Insta360 Go Ultra, although I’m sure DJI fans will have no trouble finding their way around.

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(Image credit: Lauren Scott)

DJI Osmo Nano: Performance and features

Quick-edit videos on the DJI Osmo Mimo app
Standalone camera charges 80% in about 20 mins
In-built storage and takes microSD cards up to 2TB

The performance of the Osmo Nano is hard to pin down. In some areas I felt it delivered exceptionally well, but in others it was a bit underwhelming. The rapid file transfer ended up being surprisingly helpful, and in my tests with the 128GB version DJI’s claim of up to 600 MB/s transfer speed over USB 3.1 holds up, and I found it a huge time-saver compared to sending lots of files wirelessly.

The camera’s battery life is a limitation, though, particularly when shooting at higher resolutions like 4K/60fps. I got closer to 60 minutes of continuous recording here – rather than the 90 minutes that DJI claims at 1080p/24fps – which isn’t bad for its size, but lags behind the multi-hour endurance of larger cameras like the Osmo Action 5 Pro. The dock can top up the battery on the go, and I was also impressed by its ability to charge to 80% in just 20 minutes, especially if you’re as bad as I am at remembering to charge your gear before a shoot.

You then get up to 200 minutes of 1080p/24fps video from the dock, but in reality, I found this closer to two hours once the screen and Wi-Fi are on and you’ve powered the camera up and down a few times.

If you tend to record short clips throughout a longer day, it’s nothing to worry about. If you’re the type of shooter to record continuously, you may lament the fact that there aren’t replaceable batteries to swap out when you run out of juice. I left the camera running for my battery tests during a particularly warm day, and although it felt hot to the touch during, it never overheated to the point of turning off.

(Image credit: Lauren Scott)

The Osmo Nano is equipped with DJI’s RockSteady 3.0 stabilization and HorizonBalancing. It handles a fair amount of shake, but it’s not on the same level as a dedicated gimbal like the Osmo Pocket series. In footage of fast-paced, high-impact activities like running on trails you’ll still see some micro-jitters, but for walking shots it’s pretty impressive.

Using different mounts will dictate how stable your results are. Using the pendant seemed to cause me more wobbles than handholding the camera, for example, but the head mount gave me super-smooth footage when running. It’s worth noting that there are different levels of stabilization, with daily, sport, or anti-motion blur options. You can also turn off image stabilization to save battery, or if you’re using a secondary DJI product to keep things stable.

The DJI Osmo Nano performs really well in remote shooting scenarios without a phone. The voice commands, like ‘start recording’, work almost instantaneously in a quiet environment, but require you to shout when it’s loud (not a great look in a city center). I found that gestures worked well too, and I liked being able to pat the camera when it was powered off to start recording, or nod my head when it was mounted on my head. Much more subtle.

(Image credit: Lauren Scott)

The Osmo Nano has two built-in microphones for stereo sound, and I found the audio straight out of the camera surprisingly immersive. It picks up sound from a variety of directions when you’re shooting in a public place, but still hones in on your voice when you’re speaking to the camera clearly.

Like all action cameras, the audio quality sounds muffled underwater, but the clarity returns more quickly than others I’ve tested when you pull the camera back out into fresh air. There are lower and stronger wind reduction modes, and both did a decent job of reducing disturbance when I captured some clips on a blustery countryside walk, without removing the noise entirely (see the clips below). My voice was clear and free from distortion, but it’s not the perfect solution for clean audio; for that, you’ll need a separate mic.

A major draw is the ability to connect the Osmo Nano directly to DJI’s wireless microphones without needing a separate receiver. I haven’t been able to try this yet, but I can see it being convenient for creators who want to capture high-quality audio, especially those already with DJI mics.

DJI Osmo Nano: Image quality

1/1.3-inch sensor
Video up to 4K/120fps and 35MP photos
10-bit D-Log M and HLG color profile options

The Osmo Nano has a 1/1.3-inch sensor, the same size as you’ll find in the Osmo Action 5 Pro and just a fraction smaller than the one in the Insta360 Go Ultra. Video headlines include 4K at 60fps in 16:9 format, and 4K 120fps slow-mo footage, which expands to 1080p 240fps.

The specs are one thing, but the proof is in the pudding; or in this case, in the videos and shots you get from the camera. Overall, I think the image quality is good for an action camera of this size. As ever, it won’t completely replace a full-sized or full-frame camera, but that’s not the expectation here. The fixed 143-degree ultra-wide field of view is perfect for first-person POV shots, and I could fit a whole wedding group in the frame (I don’t have permission to include the sample shot in the review, sadly), but it’s not easy to zoom in on the scene should you want to get closer in.

I tested the Osmo Nano in all weather and lighting scenarios. DJI touts the wide dynamic range of the Osmo Nano, but in direct sunshine I noticed some banding where the highlights had been clipped. You can see this in the video above, which was a test of the one-tap editing feature in the DJI Mimo app.

4K resolution is sharp and punchy, and even in 8-bit color mode the camera seems to capture vibrant blue skies and leafy greens, and handles quick changes in light (coming out of a dark tunnel, from indoors to outdoors) well; however, while I like a bit of lens flare, this is one area that could be handled better. It tended to keep my face exposed when I was talking to the camera, but this wasn’t set up anywhere in the camera. If I were to generalize, I’d say footage comes out darker than Insta360’s Go Ultra, possibly for greater leeway when editing, where the Insta option is designed for near-automatic use.

DJI’s SuperNight mode does a decent job of reducing noise in low light, but it only works at up to 30fps and with 8-bit color, which might limit its utility for serious cinematographers. It’s the best night image quality in a wearable camera I’ve seen, but it’s still bound by the laws of physics – a smaller lens and sensor will always have certain limitations compared to a larger, more dedicated camera. There’s some AI-smoothing being applied to reduce noise in low-light footage, but this is less obvious to the untrained eye, and less muddy than some night modes I’ve seen on earlier action cameras.

DJI’s automatic horizon leveling (which can be calibrated) is pretty flawless, and the RockSteady image stabilization is most impressive in sports mode. To really test it out, I wore the camera on DJI’s headband mount and recorded the first five minutes of a high-intensity workout. Throughout a gruelling round of burpies, star jumps and squats, the footage was stable and smooth (almost unnaturally so). Trail runs, dog walks, and cycle clips were all just as usable, but the handheld results are slightly more jittery than using a dedicated mount.

Photos from the camera have a medium-range megapixel count (the maximum resolution is 35MP and you can shoot in a 16:9 or 4:3 ratio), and as to their quality, I said the same thing about Insta360 Go Ultra’s photo results: they’re good enough to insert into videos, but I probably wouldn’t use them for standalone social posts or prints as a creator. Consider them as an additive rather than a standalone feature, and you won’t be disappointed.

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(Image credit: Lauren Scott)(Image credit: Lauren Scott)(Image credit: Lauren Scott)(Image credit: Lauren Scott)

Impressively, the Osmo Nano gives you the option of recording footage with a flat color profile (DJI’s D-Log M setting), designed to preserve the maximum color and brightness info in the video file, especially in lights and darks.

While the footage out of the camera is desaturated in this mode, I found you had far more wiggle room to adjust the colors, contrast, and saturation to achieve a specific, cinematic look without losing any of the detail captured in the original scene. This is also going to benefit creators shooting a project with the Osmo Nano alongside other cameras who want their edited work to look consistent.

DJI Osmo Nano: testing scorecard

Swipe to scroll horizontallyDJI Osmo Nano

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Price

Much cheaper than the Insta360 Go Ultra, and that includes helpful built-in storage.

5/5

Design

Unexciting but functional, and it’s a shame the dock is only splash-proof. The lens replacement adds ruggedness.

4/5

Performance & features

Fewer filters and modes than the Insta360 Go Ultra, but you get the option of manual controls. The DJI Osmo app makes quick, clever edits.

4/5

Image quality

In daylight, colors are vivid and dynamic range is good. Stabilization is excellent, and low light footage is fine. Slow-mo could be crisper.

4/5

Should I buy the DJI Osmo Nano?

Buy it if…

You want a camera that ‘disappears’
The Osmo Nano is small enough to be worn on a pendant, hat, or headband, thanks to its small size and weight. The magnetic mount allows for quirky mounting solutions like lamp posts, cars, and even washing machines.

You already own DJI products
To boost the sound quality, you can connect the Nano directly to two DJI microphone transmitters without needing a receiver. If you’ve already got a DJI mic, gimbal or camera, sticking with the brand also means greater familiarity with the app.

Don’t buy it if…

You like a roomy LCD screen
At less than two inches, I found the Osmo Nano’s LCD touchscreen a little small for composing shots and reviewing footage. You can use your phone for a larger live view, but this isn’t always convenient.

You want a fully waterproof solution
The Nano’s Vision Dock is only splashproof, and this made me uncomfortable while shooting in the rain or near water. If you’re a real action lover, I’d recommend a camera with a more rugged build.

Also consider

The Insta360 Go Ultra has a similar form factor, with a separate camera and action pod. The flip-up screen is more vlog-friendly and bigger at 2.5 inches, while the camera weighs the same as the Osmo Nano but is more square and shallow (which I found easier to mount). Pricing and image quality are similar, but it’s a slightly more fun action camera that’s great for the whole family.

Read my full Insta360 Go Ultra review

The GoPro Hero 13 Black is still the flagship of action cams and one I’d recommend for serious filmmakers. It’s chunkier than the Osmo, but it also has magnetic mounting. GoPro also has the widest range of mount accessories to open up creative shooting opportunities, and it’s possible to squeeze 1.5 hours of 5.3K video from the battery, for recording with fewer interruptions.

Read our full GoPro Hero 13 Black review

(Image credit: Lauren Scott)

How I tested the DJI Osmo Nano

I tested the camera for two weeks pre-embargo
I wore it on walks and runs, and mounted it for drives
I recorded videos at all settings and in all modes

DJI sent me a full-production Osmo Nano for review around two weeks before its release date, and I used it at least once a day – often much more – during this period. I always like a camera to become a natural part of my workflow, rather than carrying out one intense period of testing, so that I uncover the nuances for a more informed and helpful review.

I tried all the camera’s modes, used it with and without the dock, and mounted it on the magnetic pendant and headband. I mainly used the DJI Mimo app to edit footage right from my iPhone 15 Pro.

First reviewed September 2025

DJI Osmo Nano: Price Comparison