AKASO Brave 4 4K Review

Akaso is one of the leaders in the market for economic action cameras. The AKASO Brave 4K is a suitable action camera to cover most outdoor adventures. If you have used brands that have let you down over time, expect good results from this one. It offers interpolated 4k quality. The definition, focus, and detail is high quality. It comes with a multitude of accessories so you can place it anywhere.

The AKASO Brave is another GoPro alternative from the brand of AKASO with an affordable price and decent video quality. The AKASO Brave 4 lets you take photos up to 20MP with 4K recording, even tho I recommend doing it in 16Mp because they are sharper. It comes with a remote control that is used on the wrist, with which you can record and take photos without having to touch the camera – up to a distance of 10 meters.

But before we talk about its features, what comes in the box of the AKASO Brave 4 4K? It comes in the classic white cardboard box with pictures of our camera and with the main features and settings on the back and summarized on the sides.

Inside the box, we can find some accessories, 2 batteries, USB microphone, USB cable for charging and data transfer a 19 accessory-kit and some other items.

The AKASO Brave 4 4K is one of the most sold cameras, so we decided to review this sports camera in this article and see why it’s so popular.

If you would like to check out our best 10 GoPro alternatives blog check here!

Specs

The AKASO Brave has a Sony CMOS with an Allwinner V3 chipset. The Allwinner V3 chipset 4K/24fps, 2K/30fps, and 1080P/60FPS video resolution and 20MP photos.

It has a 7-element wide-angle lens up to 170°, 140°, 110°, and 70° and has an aperture of f/2.8. The Brave has a built-in smart gyroscope for anti-shaking and image stabilization to make your video much more smooth.

It also comes with the ability to connect through wifi to your phone and can go as far as 10 meters and HDMI Port to connect it to your pc or tv.

With the waterproof case, you can go as deep as 30m (100ft) underwater. And after you are done recording it has a 2” IPS screen which allows you to preview the video in the action camera.

This underwater camera also comes with 2 rechargeable 1050 mAh batteries, included in the box, a remote control wristband, and a 19 accessory kit, the kits are available for most action cameras even Gopro. Each battery can record up to 90 minutes. The remote wristband is not waterproof.

If you want to learn more about which action camera accessories are universal click here.

Stabilization

The AKASO Brave 4 4K comes with video stabilization (EIS), or electronic stabilization, which most sports cameras have, and this model also has a gyroscope, capable of capturing camera movements much better and make your video much more smooth.

The stabilization works pretty well, in some cases, it may seem a bit fast, but it has the advantage of never distorting the images.

If you want to record with a very smooth and stable recording we recommend getting a gimbal. The gimbal is the ultimate stabilizer of cameras. So when you are recording a video, it will be perfectly smooth. You can easily move and record without having to worry that the footage obtained will not be stable.

Battery

The AKASO Brave 4 4K comes with 2 rechargeable 1050mAh batteries, which can last about 90 minutes recording at 1080 Full HD and about 60 minutes at 4K/2K.

The battery is situated at the bottom, where there is a cover that gives access to the battery. You can also always buy separate batteries for it and change them whenever the first one runs out.

Design

The Brave 4 4K is well built with good quality plastics and it has a black color. It feels pretty durable and with the waterproof housing, it can go underwater up to 30m (100 feet). All attachments are sturdy and the waterproof case is made of high-quality plastic which makes its waterproof level up to 100 feet and protects the camera from damage in normal use.

The dimensions of the AKASO Brave 4 4K are 59.5×41.8×30.3 mm / 2.34×1.65×1.19″ and a weight of 5.6 ounces 158 grams, with a single button on the top, like most action cameras, which is used to take pictures and videos from it, but all the adjustments and controls will be made from the rear touch screen a 2-inch (5 cm) LCD screen.

On the front, we can see a tiny screen which tells you some useful information for example how much time you have been recording. On the upper side, there is the start recording button similar to most cameras, on the left side, there is the microSD compartment slot and the settings button and on the right side, there is the Micro-USB cable and the mini HDMI cable.

Photography

The photography on the AKASO is pretty decent, it can capture with its Sony CMOS sensor up to 20MP pictures with a 16: 9 format without reaching 4:3, but we can only take pictures up to 8MP.

In bright sunlight, the colors look vivid with the whole picture showing more contrast than the GoPro.

The AKASO Brave 4 4K also does pretty well shooting underwater and it’s a great low-budget camera to have to get some simple shots when going diving or snorkeling

Photo settings

• Proportion Image: to choose between 4: 3 or 16: 9
• Loop recording: Off / 3 Minutes / 5 Minutes / 10 Minutes
• WDR: Off / On
• Time-lapse Record: Off / 100 ms / 200 ms / 500 ms / 1s / 5s
• Burst: Off / Burst 3 / Burst 5 / Burst 10
• Sharpness: High / Normal / Medium
• White Balance: Auto / Daylight / Cloudy / Tungsten / Fluorescent
• Color: Natural / Black& White / Sepia
• ISO: Auto / 100 / 200 / 400
• Exposure Value: +2.0 / +1.7 / +1.3 / +1.0 / +0.7 / +0.3 / 0 / -0.3 / -0.7 / -1.0 / -1.3 / -1.7 / -2.0

Video

The AKASO Brave 4 4K/24fps, 2K/30fps and 1080P/60FPS video resolution, although it doesn’t have real 4K, it’s interpolated. It has decent image quality for being a low-budget action camera, it uses a 170° super wide-angle as well as the ability to adjust the angle, and is able to provide videos and photos even in low light.

Although the sharpness and contrast are not a setting we can change. The configuration by default is well balanced, the images are sharp enough, the sky does not have the tendency classic towards the too blue and has overall pretty nice colors. But of course, being a low-budget action camera don’t expect any amazing looking results, like GoPro Hero 8 can achieve (If you would like to check out our review click here).

Here are the video resolutions of the AKASO Brave 4 4K

• 4K (3840 x 2160) / 24fps (Interpolated)
• 2.7K (2688 x 1520) / 30fps
• 1080P Full HD (1920 × 1080) / 60fps / 30fps
• 720P (1280 × 720) / 120fps / 60fps / 30fps

We can choose from a variety of options and video settings in the AKASO Brave 4 4K as:

• Video quality
• Lens distortion
• Stabilizer or video stabilization (ON / OFF)
• Mute
• Exposition
• ISO
• Balance of Targets

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Mini LCD screen in the front	Doesn’t have real 4k
Comes with 2 batteries	Needs a case for underwater
Ability to Zoom for pictures	Decent image quality
Has wifi connection	Low-quality audio
Comes with remote control
Supports SD cards up to 64GB

Should you buy it?

The AKASO Brave 4 is a great low-budget GoPro alternative that you can get. It has some pretty good features and covers most of the basic needs of an action camera, for example, the ability to go underwater even though it needs its housing. It also doesn’t have real 4K quality it’s interpolated, but the image quality and stabilization is pretty decent.

The Brave can also be controlled in multiple ways for example with its remote control or with the Wifi application. It is also compatible with most accessories like all of the GoPro accessories. It uses pretty cheaply but decent quality batteries which can last up to 90min.

I definitely recommend getting this camera if you’re looking for a good cheap quality-value action camera. Being a low-budget action camera don’t expect to have GoPro quality or high-end brand quality. If you wanna check some other action cameras, medium and high-end click here!

AKASO Brave 4 4K (Amazon): https://amzn.to/2XxW11O