The GoPro Hero 9 Black is the most powerful and flexible activity camera you can purchase, but for many people, its predecessor gives better value. While the new detector and front screen are helpful additions, the fluctuations do not collectively represent a large jump over the Hero 8 Black. Its slightly unresponsive touchscreen can also be somewhat bothersome, even if a firmware fix is en route. No additional actions may match the Hero 9 Black’s skillset, but others do now edge it for the worth.
Two-minute review
The GoPro Hero 9 Black is the most powerful and versatile activity camera you can purchase, but its new features do not provide quite enough real-world benefits on its predecessor to warrant the purchase price.
Both largest updates are its new detector and front screen. That brand new 23.6MP sensor shoots 5K video which does provide slightly more detail compared to Hero 8 Black, in the ideal conditions.
But maybe the larger advantage is to its digital stabilization, together with all the Hero 9 Black capable to supply HyperSmooth Boost — GoPro’s strongest insertion — in all shooting modes. This makes it a leading performer for people who need high-quality 4K (and 5K) video.
That brand new front color screen, although far from ideal, is also quite a helpful new feature for vlogging or basic shooting. It is a bit laggy without a match for a committed articulating screen such as the one on the Sony ZV-1. But if you prefer to frame yourself in movies that a lot, then that is most likely that the GoPro for you.
But, a number of those GoPro Hero 9 Black’s other new features are not quite as polished. The brand new battery boosts its endurance somewhat, but it is just a minor advancement and we discovered the Hero 9 Black more likely to overheating that its predecessors.
At the same time, you get marginally enhanced insertion with GoPro’s new flagship, the true grade of its 4K video is not clearly better than the Hero 8 Black’s. Other attributes like Scheduled recording, while helpful on events, are not yet entirely dependable. And many frustratingly, we discovered the Hero 9 Black’s back touchscreen to be quite unresponsive occasionally.
However, the latter is going to be mended by a November firmware upgrade, and when GoPro can iron a number of the Hero 9 Black’s other small kinks, it might nevertheless become our number one activity camera choice. At the moment, the Hero 8 Black pips it for the absolute price, however, this feature-packed sibling is a close second.
Design
The Hero 9 Black is the largest redesign of GoPro’s flagship activity camera because the Hero 5 Black, and the results are mostly positive (with a few caveats).
There are 3 large physical changes in the Hero 8 Black: a fresh 1.4-inch color screen on the front, a beefier body (to home its larger battery), and a bigger back 2.27-inch back touchscreen.
Together, these new attributes feel like a response to this DJI Osmo Action, a fresh-faced competition that in certain ways made GoPro action cameras feel somewhat outdated. In certain ways, the Hero 9 Black nevertheless does, and that is partly because the new attributes all include little drawbacks.
First, Fantastic news. This 1.4-inch color screen on the front is absolutely a useful new improvement for vlogging. It mercifully is not touch-sensitive, otherwise, your memory card will immediately fill up with a lot of miserable injuries, but it will supply a live video trailer of your own scene along with a few helpful shooting advice.
Being a square screen, it surely is not quite in precisely the exact same league as the side-hinged displays seen on cameras such as the Sony ZV-1, along with your smartphone’s display when mounted on gimbals such as the DJI OM 4. While the latter provides you with a generous live preview of your entire shot, the Hero 9 Black’s is much more of a rough manual. It is sufficient to be certain that your face will be in the framework, at the least.
Past GoPros have had monochrome screens, which reveal shooting information like the rest of the battery lifetime, just how much space is left in your memory card, along with your present resolution/frame-rate. Not quite as exciting, but definitely more sensible if you do not shoot a lot of cameras.
Naturally, the new color screen includes increased battery requirements, which is partially why GoPro has inflated the Hero 9 Black’s body dimensions to squeeze into a brand new 1,720mAh battery. That battery capacity is 40% larger compared to 1,220mAh ones its predecessors, which GoPro says contributes to some 30% real-world advancement. As we will see later from the’functionality’ segment, that is marginally optimistic based on our tests.
However, these modifications do come with drawbacks for anybody who is upgrading from an elderly GoPro. The Hero 9 Black is not backward compatible with older GoPro batteries, because they are a different dimension, which means that you can not use older ones as spares. Along with also the newest design, which fosters its dimensions and weight from about 10%, is also too large for the old cases or housings.
A GoPro redesign was unavoidable at some stage, therefore we can not be overly significant about that, but one of our greatest frustrations with the Hero 9 Black is that the responsiveness of its back touchscreen. This 2.27-inch screen is a little larger than the Hero 8 Black’s, but it still contains big, outdated bezels and feels noticeably diminished when responding to bits and swipes.
It is likely that this is down to a processor bottleneck, provided that the GP1 chip now must push a bigger rear display and color front screen concurrently, while still recording. In any event, GoPro has verified that a repair is coming from a November firmware upgrade, but it is not perfect for a flagship version for this price.
