GoPro Hero 10 Review
GoPro has released its new camera the Hero 10, an action camera capable of 5.3K resolution with 60fps, great battery time, and a lot of new better specs! GoPro is one of the biggest producers in the action camera market with some of the most successful models especially on sites such as Amazon, in this blog, we review the GoPro Hero 10 a powerful high-end sports cam. The biggest improvement is its new processor from the GP1 to the GP2, this is the start of a new chapter in GoPro’s cameras.
The new GoPro Hero 10 is the same size as last year’s model the Hero 9 which means all of your accessories will fit great, you won’t have problems with most other accessories since it has built-in bottom connectors. The Hero 10 has upgraded its processor from the GP1 to the GP2 which improves performance, it also comes with better removable lens.
But before we talk about its features, what comes in the box of the GoPro Hero 10? Inside the box, we can find the GoPro Hero 10 sports cam, a GoPro 1720maH battery, a 32GB SD card, the USB cable to charge, a few accessories, and a manual.
In this blog post, your gonna find out everything you need to know about this new action camera from GoPro and its new features and some comparisons from last year’s GoPro, the Hero 9 Black. Has it improved? Is the video quality better, what are the specs, better audio?
Pros
≫ 5.3K Resolution up to 60fps
≫ Dual-Screen
≫ HyperSmooth 4.0
≫ Waterdrop repellent lens
≫ Good battery life
≫ Pictures up to 23MP
Cons
≫ Slowmotion max 240fps
≫ Not great in low-light
Design
As mentioned above the new Hero 10 is the same size as last year’s model the Hero 9, which are a bit bigger than older GoPro’s, the design overall looks the same as the Hero 9/ 8/ 7 but with a new blue color, the plastics feel high quality and it has a black color. The Hero 10 comes with a new lens which GoPro claims to be more durable and waterdrop repellent, I find it to be a great help when filming around water.
Like most new sports cams the Hero 10 can go underwater without the waterproof housing, it can go underwater up to 10m (33feet). The Hero 10 also comes with a front screen like the previous model the Hero 9, which is perfect for vloggers and to set up your shot perfectly without having to look on the back screen, and with the new GP2, the screen is much more responsive.
On the front, we can see the lens, the microphone, and the front screen. On the upper side, there is the shutter button similar to most cameras, on the left side, there is the microSD compartment slot, the battery compartment, and the USB-C-Port connector, on the right side, there is the mode button to turn off and on the cam or change settings as well as the drain microphone, most of them can be changed with the touchscreen.
The dimensions of it are 71 x 55 x 33.6mm (2.8 x 2.1 x 1.3 inch) and its weight is 159g (5.6 ounce).
Technical Specifications
As for specs the Hero 10 has incorporated the new GP2 chipset that allows it to record 5.3K 60fps and 4K 120, and 23MP photos using a 170° super wide-angle lens with an opening of F1.8. It uses HyperSmooth 4.0 Video Stabilization which supports up to 5K.
The Hero 10 also comes with a Wi-Fi connection, I found it’s a bit faster to connect thanks to the new processor. The app connects with the GoPro smartphone app to control the camera through your phone or enjoy hands-free control of your camera via simple voice commands. The GoPro App can also automatically back up footage to GoPro’s cloud subscription service (over Wi-Fi).
In the back we can find the IPS 1.4″ color LCD with Live Preview and status, the screen is as big as last year’s GoPro, very responsive, and easy to playback your videos or change settings.
The Audio Features of the Hero 10 are 3.5mm Audio Mic Input with Media Mod for HERO10 Black. It can also capture RAW Audio Capture (.wav Format) and has Advanced Wind-Noise Reduction.
The Hero 10 does come with a 32GB SD card but if you plan on using another Micro SD card you should format it before using it. Micro SD card must be U3 or higher with 8-128GB capacity. If “SD card error” appears, format your SD card as FAT32 on your computer.
≫ Video resolution: 5K (5120 x 2880)
≫ Image quality: 23MP
≫ Battery: 1720 mAh
≫ Frame rate: 30FPS/ 60FPS/ 120FPS/ 240FPS
≫ HyperSmooth 4.0
≫ SD Card up to 128GB
≫ Codec h.264 / h.265
≫ Can shoot in .RAW format
≫ Underwater up to 10m
≫ Records in .mp4
≫ WiFi connection
≫ FOV: 170º wide angle
≫ Sensor: SONY CMOS IMX179
Battery
The GoPro Hero 10 uses a 1720mAh 3.7V battery, the same as the Hero 9 which is quite good, not having a touch screen or front LCD panel, it will save us battery. The battery can last up to 180 minutes recording 1080p Full HD video, with the WiFi and screen turned off. In the case of capturing 5K video, battery life will drop dramatically.
The new battery has a system that, combining software and greater capacity, manages to reach 41% more battery than the old GoPro’s. If you want to increase the battery time you can always lower the brightness and not use the front screen when not necessary.
The battery is situated on the right side of the GoPro, where there is a cover that gives access to the battery. The GoPro Hero 10 comes with 1 battery, I recommend getting a second one so you can change them quickly and keep recording whenever the first one runs out.
Stabilization
Like the last GoPro models, the Hero 10 has improved its stabilization to the new HyperSmooth 4.0. Compared to the Hero 9 the new HyperSmooth stabilization doesn’t change that much, GoPro has mastered stabilization these last years and HyperSmooth 4.0 is the best stabilization of any sports cam.
Last year’s GoPro also introduced a “Boost” mode in the stabilization which is also included in the Hero 10, the Boost helps you get even more stabilization while sacrificing some image width. Last year GoPro also introduced “Portrait Orientation” were the camera locks onto the horizon level and keeps the video locked with the horizon no matter how you move the camera, the Hero 10 improved this mode a bit as well.
HyperSmooth stabilization really is a game-changer, at least for action cameras and gimbal users, it works great and can smooth the shot massively and get rid of the need for gimbals. The one negative side of the stabilization is the small cropping you get while recording, but it’s worth it.
Photography
As for the photography, GoPro has improved its resolution a bit and added the ability to take a high-quality frame from a video and turn it into a picture, the GoPro Hero 10 can take pictures up to 23.6MP (4096 x 2160) a lot more than its predecessors used to be at 12MP, thanks to the higher resolution we get a lot more detail in the pictures.
The quality is similar to the Hero 8 / 9, GoPro has changed its protune settings a bit, protune which lets you change multiple settings such as the possibility to change the ISO, shutter speed, and the exposure time, with patience we can work interesting images.
The GoPro Hero 10 has different modes to take pictures: SuperPhoto + Improved HDR, LiveBurst, Wide, Linear, and Narrow Lenses. The Hero 10 shoots with JPG by default but you have the option of shooting in RAW format to get a lot more detail in post-production.
For more action shots the Hero 10 has the ability to take Burst pictures capable of shooting: 30/10, 30/6, 30/3, 25/1, 10/3, 10/1, 5/1, 3/1 Intervals, and a new feature on this year’s GoPro is the LiveBurst shooting from 90 images from 1.5 seconds before shooting to 1.5 seconds after (at a frame rate of 30fps).
For those who want to get Night pictures, GoPro has the ability to shoot at Night with the Night mode, which let’s change the settings to: 2s, 5s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s.
Video
It’s capable to record up to 5K resolution and 60 frames per second. The videos captured with this action camera are stored in .mov format under the H.264 (common codec for most cameras) or H.265 (new codec that allows greater video compression).
The Hero 10 has similar video quality to the Hero 9 not much has changed in the overall image quality, thanks to the 5K you can zoom in and the video will still look great, perfect for video editing especially, a new detail about this year’s GoPro is the ability to change the bitrate to achieve higher quality in the settings, increasing the amount of video information the camera gets.
The Hero 10 comes with a couple of new settings such as new color configurations: GoPro Flat, GoPro Natural, and GoPro Vivid.
With protune enabled you can switch between the different resolution and FPS options, we also have shutter speed control, ISO, sharpness, exposure compensation, color profile, and other adjustments that affect the sound or stabilization.
Audio:
The audio of the Hero 10 is very similar to the Hero 9, last year GoPro introduced an external mic accessory that helped get much better audio if you are interested in getting the best audio you can with a GoPro. The Hero 10’s mic also comes with a drain mic feature to drain the water after putting it underwater. You can also get the audio modes from GoPro to help get better audio.
The video resolutions of the GoPro Hero 10 are the following:
- 5K a 60fps/ 30fps/ 24fps
- 4K a 120fps/ 60fps/ 30fps/ 24fps
- 2.7K a 240fps/ 120fps/ 60fps/ 30fps/ 24fps
- 1080P HD a 240fps/ 120fps/ 60fps/30fps
- 720P HD a 240fps/ 120fps/60fps/30fps/ 24fps
Features
Like its predecessor, the Hero 10 has multiple features to improve your videos and stand out. This year’s GoPro does have a few new features and improved some from the last GoPro the Hero 9 such as the Schedule Capture.
The TimeWarp 3.0 and RealSpeed. The surreal TimeWarp effect is back and improved, GoPro improved the fast-motion mode and achieves better results. The Hero 10 has a new “realspeed” function which allows it to capture the usual stabilized timelapse, as well as the automatic speed selection. You can also just tap to speed it up or slow it down.
Schedule Capture is another new mode from the Hero 10, the camera will turn on and start recording at a scheduled time you set, now you can sleep in and not miss the opportunity to get that sunrise video.
Duration Capture is a simple mode that lets you select the length of time you would like to record a video and your GoPro will record.
The new Hindsight mode can capture up to 30 seconds of video before you hit record on your GoPro so you won’t miss a moment, I find it to be a very useful moment when you miss a cool moment, with this moment you can now go back and not lose that moment.
Other modes such as time-lapses and webcam mode from older models still exist in the Hero 10 as well.
The new LiveBurst can record 45 frames in 1.5 seconds before and after you shoot the picture, it’s the perfect mode to not miss a moment and unlike other sports cams the ability to get a few seconds before is really helpful.
Thanks to the app and the built-in Wi-Fi, GoPro can Live Stream in 1080p to social media such as Instagram or Facebook and show all of the action to your friends live!
Presets + On-Screen Shortcuts, you can learn more about Presets and Lightroom presets by clicking here!
Should you buy it?
The GoPro Hero 10 is the best action camera GoPro has produced so far and the best in the market, with the new processor GoPro now can achieve better performance and better specs, such as 5K recording 60fps and 4K 120fps, I find these specifications very impressive and the HyperSmooth 4.0 stabilization is compatible with these high resolutions as well.
Compared to older models such as the Hero 9 or the Hero 8, the Hero 10 doesn’t improve that much in terms of image quality, audio quality, and design, the big changes from this new GoPro might not be enough for some people to upgrade from the Hero 9, if you use your GoPro a lot and edit videos you might find the new specs and features worth the upgrade.
The GoPro Hero 10 is also compatible with all the accessories from the Hero 9 since they are the same size and design. The batteries are the same as the Hero 9 but the Hero 10 tens to lose battery faster, hopefully, GoPro will fix this with a future update.
As I said before the best feature of the Hero 10 is the new GP2 processor and all the new specs it offers. Thanks to the new processor GoPro has improved a bit in low-light situations but it’s still not great to film at night like most action cameras. The camera can also go underwater pretty deep up to 10m (33ft) without a waterproof case 40m (130ft) with a case.
The Hero 10 is currently the best action camera you can get, if you already have a Hero 9 it might not be worth upgrading to the Hero 10, if you are using an older model I would say the Hero 10 is worth upgrading too if you’re looking for a cheaper option action camera check out our other reviews on GoPro alternatives: If you wanna check some other action cameras, medium and high-end click here!
Review Breakdown
Video support up to 5K up to 60fps with HyperSmooth 4.0 and pictures up to 23MP. 1720 mah battery which can last about 180 minutes. The new GP2 processor improves performance and the camera’s specs overall.
Customers appreciate this camera’s simplicity.
It has an extremely touted intuitive button layout, as
well as easy-to-navigate access menus.