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GoPro Hero (2024) review: As basic as (good) action cameras come

GoPro Hero (2024) review: As basic as (good) action cameras come

Tom's Guide09-05-2025
The GoPro Hero represents a back-to-basics approach from the legendary, and indeed first, modern action camera manufacturer. This tiny camera is stripped back in every sense that matters, and deliberately so. See, the Hero is intended with a couple of (potentially overlapping) buyers in mind.
The first are no frills and/or budget buyers, who can't or don't want to spend large sums on a flagship camera packed with features they won't use. In this arena, at $199, the Hero is competing against AliExpress specials like the Akaso Brave 8 Lite, but also against the fabulous DJI Osmo Action 4, one of the best action cameras around and often available for little over $200.
The second market are people who want a super compact device for mounting in tricky areas or on helmets. Here, the GoPro is up against the fantastic Insta360 Go 3S, our favorite tiny action camera, albeit a hell of a lot pricier than the Hero.
In both arenas, the GoPro Hero is facing some extremely tough competition. Does it do enough to warrant a recommendation? Find out more in my full GoPro Hero review.
Price
$199 / £199
Max video resolution
4K/30p
Sensor size/resolution
1/1.28-inch CMOS, 12MP
Rear screen
1.76-inch LCD touchscreen
Front screen
None
Internal memory
None
MicroSD slot
Yes
Pre-recording
None
Loop recording
None
Timelapse/hyperlapse
None
Livestreaming
None
Connectivity
USB-C, Bluetooth (to Quik app only), Wi-Fi (to Quik app only)
Water resistance
16 feet (5 meters)
Battery
1,255mAh
Battery life (tested, 4K/30p)
103 minutes
Size
2.2 x 1.87 x 1.15 inches
Weight
3 ounces
The GoPro Hero was launched in late 2024 and costs $199 / £199 from Amazon, or from GoPro direct. For a decent new 4K action camera, this is cheap! The sub-$200 region is typically where the 'no-name' Amazon brand cameras sit, like the Akaso Brave 8 Lite ($199).
As we'll see later on, the Hero suffers many of the same compromises as the Brave 8 Lite, including no in-camera stabilization. But make no mistake, if you're weighing up the two, the premium GoPro is the better camera any day of the week.
However, looming in the background is a specter; a $200(ish), DJI-shaped specter, no less. The DJI Osmo Action 4 is, ostensibly, still retailing at around $270, but I've seen it drop as low as $209 around sales events, like Black Friday.
The Osmo Action 4 (OA4) is DJI's 2023 flagship camera, packing in-camera stabilization, great audio and 4K/60p video. It's bigger than the Hero, so if size and weight are your primary concern, it might not be the right fit. Otherwise, if you can hold out to an Amazon Prime event or seasonal sale, the OA4 makes it very difficult to justify saving $10 on the Hero.
Key to the GoPro Hero's design is its diminutive size. It weighs just 3 ounces and measures only 2.2 x 1.87 x 1.15 inches. This makes it an absolute dream to mount. I've been using the Hero as a dashcam, as it's able to fit into small gaps on handlebars or tuck away between a car rear-view mirror and windscreen. It's also perfect for helmet mounting and never proves cumbersome, nor does it weigh down your face when chin-mounted.
The Hero is noticeably smaller than the Insta360 Go 3S ($399) when using the Go's Action Pod, which is necessary for attaching to fork mounts. That's how you'll be mounting for pretty much all high octane pursuits, making the Hero the better choice for action footage where space is the primary concern.
However, the Go 3S' party trick is its size without the Action Pod — its thumb camera is truly tiny, so if you want to mount a camera in unconventional space-deprived places, like the inside of a helmet visor, on a cap peak or on your cat's collar, the Go 3S is the camera for the job.
As a GoPro, the Hero is extremely well built and feels like a premium product. On the base of the camera are flip out fingers, so it can be mounted to universal fork mounts without needing any other accessories. The Insta360 Go 3S requires a magnetic mount adapter to connect to fork mounts.
The Hero features a removable lens guard, which can be replaced if damaged. A similar guard can be found on virtually every action camera, but it's a great feature nonetheless.
The Hero is fairly rugged thanks to weather-sealing, but is only waterproof to 16 feet (5 meters), which is a lot less than the DJI Osmo Action 4 (59 feet) and even the Akaso Brave 8 Lite (33 feet). The Go 3S' thumb camera is waterproof to 33 feet but its Action Pod is only splash-proof. For any water-based footage, I'd recommend the OA4.
The Hero only has a single rear screen, so it isn't suitable for vlogging. I found the 1.76-inch LCD display plenty bright enough to be usable on sunny days, but the touch sensitivity is very laggy. In fact, operating the camera using the rear screen is simply tedious.
There are two buttons, one for power and connection, the other for recording. Here too, physical buttons are frequently unresponsive, leading to missed inputs or double inputs as the camera lags then catches up with itself.
Powering on is always a sticking point: I'll press the power 3 seconds button and nothing happens; wait, then press it again and get nothing; then put it on charge (assuming it's dead), for it to finally power on with 43% battery. I also have this problem with other GoPro cameras — my Hero12 Black ($399) is particularly bad for it.
In fact, I almost always find GoPros frustrating and unreliable to control versus DJI and Insta360 cameras, and it's enough to put me off using them entirely when I'm not using one for testing. When I have the choice between brands (which, I'm grateful to say, I always do), I leave GoPro on the shelf. I can't risk not capturing footage because GoPro can't make controls that work properly.
For connectivity, there's a USB-C port and a microSD slot under the side hatch for connectivity, storage and file transfer. You can also transfer files wirelessly via the GoPro Quik app. All par for the course.
GoPros can normally boast buttery smooth footage straight out of camera. Curiously, then, the Hero doesn't have any in-camera image stabilization — a compromise made to enable its diminutive size.
There's no way of getting around it: this sucks, and I hate it. Your footage can be stabilized, but it must first be passed through the GoPro Quik app, or stabilized in some other post-production software. This is the same setup as you'll find on the Akaso Brave 8 Lite, although that camera's app sucks (unlike Quik), so it's an even bigger issue. Both the Insta360 Go 3S and DJI OA4 stabilize in-camera, so you can offload files and upload them immediately with no editing required.
Once you've stabilized the footage in the Quik app, though, it looks great. In the clip above, I took a Brompton (yes, a Brompton) on some gravel trails, with lots of bumps (especially under the bridge). It was a supremely uncomfortable experience, but the Hero makes it look like I was riding over Daytona Speedway asphalt.
Alright — on-paper stats out of the way first: the GoPro Hero tops out at 4K/30p and has no fancy modes as you'll find on its bigger brother, the GoPro Hero13 Black ($399).
That means no timelapse modes, no night mode, no dashcam or loop recording modes, nada. You can't even change the resolution in camera — this can be done only at export, so you're locked into recording at 4K (which isn't ideal if you want to shoot at a lower res to maximise the amount of footage you can record).
In the Quik app, you can choose to export in 4K/30p, 2.7K/30p or Full HD/30p. 25p is also available for 50Hz PAL recording. 2.7K/60p is available, but only in slow motion mode, and it'll be exported in 30p to slow it down. Essentially, there's no 60p standard output, so super-fast-paced action may look choppy. The Osmo Action 4 shoots 4K/60p.
All that aside, 4K footage from the Hero looks really good. As you can see in the video above as I walked through Cardiff Bay, the image is very sharp in the center, and reasonably sharp on the outside edges as wide angle barrel distortion creeps in.
Colors look fantastic. The stabilization footage in the section above is packed full of vivid greens, while the walking footage above is packed with colors, especially bold blues and rich reds. It all looks typically GoPro: nicely saturated and bold without looking artificial.
The optics aren't perfect. Noticeable in most of the footage are lens flares, although I was often shooting in direct sunlight with the sun in-frame, so I can cut the Hero some slack here.
If you just want to shoot 4K footage, with no frills, you won't have any complaints about the Hero's output. You can also shoot in a wide 4:3 mode for a fisheye effect (although the lens guard creeps into frame).
The GoPro Hero's internal microphone setup is pretty cruddy. Again, this is another compromise made to facilitate the camera's diminutive size.
There are two internal microphones, whereas the standard in today's flagships is three. There's no wind reduction mode, nor a stereo mode. You can't hook up a microphone via Bluetooth, nor via the USB-C port (I tried connecting my DJI Mic Mini to no avail). And GoPro offers no microphone adapter for the Hero.
The microphone performs well enough at low speeds. In the footage above of my cycling across a tidal barrage, the Hero's microphones have done a decent job of cutting out most wind noise, and you can hear the whining and chain of the electric bike I was riding.
In the motorcycle audio clip above, however, recorded using the Hero, you can hear how bad the wind buffeting is at speed. There's no real depth to the audio either, with the clip sounding tinny and all of the lower frequencies from the motorcycle's engine and exhaust lost.
If audio is important to your footage, don't buy the Hero. The DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro ($349) and the Insta360 X5 ($549) have far better microphones — the X5 in particular is extremely good at cutting wind noise.
The GoPro Hero connects to the GoPro Quik app for file transfers, editing and remote control. Quik is a fairly decent application. It's polished, easy to use, and allows you much easier control of the Hero than the camera's small, unresponsive rear display. Changing what limited settings you can before you shoot is best done on the app.
The app is of course where you stabilize four footage, but it's also a great place to make basic edits such as trimming, editing exposure, etc. You can also apply some (supposedly) AI-generated effects, which can be quite funny.
I tested this out on a short video of some friends walking past the castle in the town of Hay-on-Wye — aptly, the Quik app applied some medieval-themed music… to four millennials walking past a string of parked cars.
The GoPro Hero is fitted with a 1,255mAh battery, which is pretty puny as action camera batteries go. The Osmo Action 5 Pro, our favorite cam, packs a 1,950mAh, for context.
The battery is also built in, so good luck if you run out of battery mid-shoot —you're just going to have to wait until it charges up again.
Thankfully, battery life is excellent, as is thermal performance. My standardized stress testing involves running action cameras indoors at 4K/60p until they overheat and/or run out of charge. Obviously, 4K/60p isn't available on the Hero, so I ran it at its maximum 4K/30p. The Hero managed a huge 1 hour 43 minutes and didn't overheat at all.
So, back to my question from the top of this page: is the GoPro Hero right for you? That depends. It's a camera of compromise, and whether that trade-off will be acceptable to you rests on what you need.
If budget is your primary concern, the Hero is definitely worth considering. It's a much better package than most cameras in this price range, like the Akaso Brave 8 and Brave 8 Lite. With great 4K video and strong battery life, if very little else, the Hero is a simple budget tool for the job.
However, if possible, I would highly recommend budgeteers to hold out for the DJI Osmo Action 4 on sale (where it often retails around the $200 mark). 4K/60p video, in-camera stabilization, much better internal audio and a host of professional features make the OA4 a much better long term proposition.
If you need a small camera above all else, the Hero is a great budget alternative to the Insta360 Go 3S. Again, it can't match the Go 3S in terms of performance, features or sheer versatility, but that's the sacrifice you'll need to make to save money.
In short, the Hero isn't a bad camera. In a few core areas, it's even impressive. Unfortunately, the GoPro Hero is just too compromised for a flat-out recommendation from me.
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I spent 3 weeks testing this wet and dry floor cleaner, and I'm finally ready to ditch my mop — here's why
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  • Tom's Guide

I spent 3 weeks testing this wet and dry floor cleaner, and I'm finally ready to ditch my mop — here's why

Weight: 11.5 lbsClean tank capacity: 24.6 fl ozDirty tank capacity: 21.1 fl ozSettings: 3 cleaning modesRun time: 40 minutesCharging time: 5 hoursNoise: 74 dB(A) I'm all for making my life easier, and I welcome any household gadget that saves me time, especially if it's a cleaning aid. I already own one of the best vacuum cleaners, and love my cordless upright Shark, but it doesn't wash my hard floors. It's efficient at cleaning up dust and dirt, but it can't provide that deep-down clean that is needed when dirt is trodden in from my yard, or when drinks are spilled. With four adults living in my home, I need something that works and cuts down on my chores. Enter Eureka's RapidWash 730 wet and dry vacuum cleaner. It might not work on carpet, so I'll stick to using my Shark upstairs, but it sure comes up trumps on hard floors. Here's how it held up when I put it to the test for 3 weeks in my busy home. 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Bull market enters the 'anything goes' phase. Should you follow?
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CNBC

time2 hours ago

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Bull market enters the 'anything goes' phase. Should you follow?

"Hey, you never know" was the catchphrase of New York State Lottery ads through much of the 1990s. An old friend in advertising who worked on another state's lottery account once told me his creative team couldn't get that line out of their minds, failing to improve upon the way it so perfectly captured the awareness of long odds that make the notion of winning that much more enticing. "I'll probably lose – but what if I don't?" Without belaboring a clumsy and reductionist analogy between negative-sum lottery games and positive-sum investing, the recent re-embrace of meme-stock trading, proliferating short-squeeze stampedes and the alt-coin crypto revival has that "Hey, you never know" flavor. And, frankly, the thing about markets is you truly never do know what stocks will work, or why, or how much good or bad news is priced in at a given moment. 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Volume in penny stocks is now running in the 98 th percentile of all periods since 1990, and turnover in stocks with enterprise-value-to-sales ratios above 10 is in the 96 th , the firm says. (This harkens to a known lottery phenomenon called "jackpot fatigue" – a given level of payout fails to excite players after a while, requiring more juice to activate their interest.) Fascinatingly, similar rushes for the risky fringe of the markets have in the past had positive implications for S & P 500 returns over the ensuing 3-, 6- and 12-month periods, Goldman says, but beyond a year they have tended to lead to significantly worse performance. "The trend is your friend until the end when it bends," indeed. 3Fourteen Research co-founder and CIO Warren Pies unveiled a new Daily Sentiment Composite last week as well, comprising ETF flows, options activity, systematic-hedge-fund behavior, surveys and more. 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Similarly, we can talk to young people who trade short-dated stock options or leveraged ETFs or penny stocks about the power of long-term compounding and clockwork retirement contributions, but good luck having it penetrate when homes are out of reach for most and we've just seen trillions in crypto wealth pile up in a few years, as bitcoin was all the while derided (with good reason) as economically unnecessary. Financial guardrails being removed These are tidal shifts in societal behavior lapping around the edges of the capital markets. There's a broader story to tell these days about the urgent removal of financial guardrails and the gradual buildup of structural excesses now underway: Congress is greenlighting stablecoins and blessing crypto-ownership expansions. Banks are being urged to lend to consumers against their crypto assets. Robinhood is tokenizing high-value private startups to let smaller investors own them. 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It remains notable that for all the wild action in the spicier parts of the market, the core of the equity complex has scarcely made a misstep in months. The furious springtime rebound rally has given way to a calm, low-drama grind – a "boring is bullish" mode. The S & P 500 was nearly static on multiple days last week, reflecting some groups cooling off and others playing some catch-up, a so-far orderly rotation that nonetheless bears monitoring. The benefit of the doubt remains with the bullish overall trend, even while the case for a tactical pause or retrenchment builds. Stock reactions to earnings have been slightly net negative for the companies reporting even as the aggregate "beat rate" has been expectedly high. The Nasdaq 100 is getting pretty stretched relative to its longer-term trend and has put in a significant multi-month peak in the second half of July the past two years. Arguably, the consensus is now a bit complacent regarding the potential impact of tariff outcomes, lulled by a slow-and-steady economy helped by a torrid tech capex binge. Valuation is not much of a tactical help, but I'll note that Microsoft – an excellent measuring tool given it's been near the top of the index and at the front lines of tech trends for more than a generation – is again trading above 33-times forward 12-month earnings. Its P/E has been no higher than 34 since the early 2000s, all in the past few years. Elevated, sure, and reflective of a market pricing in plenty of positives. But not exactly bubbly – the stock traded above 50x in the two years before the March 2000 peak of the tech mania, a time when the public intoxication with risk reached genuine historic extremes that the current speculative wave has not yet even closely approached.

These $130 Asus Gaming Headphones Get Almost Everything Right
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  • CNET

These $130 Asus Gaming Headphones Get Almost Everything Right

CNET's expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise. Asus ROG Pelta $130 at Amazon Pros Sound great Comfortable Customizable sound Affordable Three connection modes Cons No noise cancellation No Xbox support Minimal headband adjustment Asus ROG Pelta $130 at Amazon After reviewing the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 headset last year, I was impressed by just how much a good headset can improve the gaming experience. While headsets like the Stealth 700s are great, they're also expensive. The ROG Pelta headphones from Asus, on the other hand, nail the basics while being more affordable. I've been testing the Pelta's for several weeks now and I'm quite impressed. They get just about everything right and only cost $130. That's still a fair amount of money, but much of what you get with the Pelta is often only found on headsets that cost twice as much. What I like about the Asus ROG Pelta CNET/Jason Cockerham For starters, the 50mm titanium-plated drivers sound great. No matter what game I played, I heard everything clearly. Both music and movies sounded fantastic, almost as good as my $300 Sony XM3 headphones. The best part is that with the Asus Armory Crate app you can customize the sound profile in detail. Asus gives you lots of options for tuning the headphones precisely to your liking, which is a welcome touch at this price. There are some custom profiles as well for those who just want to pick one and leave it. To be honest, I never felt the need to switch from the default settings during my entire time with the Peltas. They're also comfortable to wear. The earcups fit well over my ears, and the cushions are comfortable -- more so than the Stealth 700s. They're made of soft mesh material that gives them greater breathability than others I've used. They're also very lightweight. There's no carrying case, which is disappointing. CNET/Jason Cockerham Microphone quality is also solid. I never had any teammates complain about not being able to hear me, and I even took a few video calls with them and didn't have any issues. The mic is also removable, which is convenient, so it doesn't get in the way when you're not using it. The 70-hour battery life (90 on Bluetooth) is quite decent, and you can get 3 hours of usage with 15 minutes of charging. The Pelta's can connect to PC, Mac, PlayStation, Switch and mobile devices via Bluetooth or a 2.4GHz USB-C dongle. There's also an included USB-C cable with an adapter if you want to go the wired route. The odd part is that there's no Xbox support. What I didn't like about the Asus ROG Pelta CNET/Jason Cockerham The only real downside is that the headband is not telescoping, which means there are only three predetermined positions for adjusting the headset. This may not be a problem for most, but I have a small, weirdly shaped head and the Pelta never quite fit as snugly as I would have liked. I always felt like they would slip off at any moment. They never did, but it always felt like they were about to. There's also no 3.5mm headphone jack. I get that this is becoming more common these days, but it's still annoying. There are still those of us who want a good analog connection from time to time. Noise cancellation also doesn't make an appearance, but that's not uncommon on gaming headphones, especially at this price. Should you buy the Asus ROG Pelta? Overall, for $130, there's really not much to dislike about the ROG Pelta headphones. They work with almost any device, sound great, have good battery life and are quite comfortable. If you're looking for a good gaming headset that won't have your wallet complaining, and you don't have an Xbox, the Pelta's should be high on the list.

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