The GoPro Hero 9 Black has been slowly revealing itself in a series of leaks that have hinted at some potentially big changes, and now the company has revealed the official launch date for its next flagship action camera.
The launch, which is scheduled for Wednesday September 16, was confirmed in a Twitter teaser (below) that gives us a glimpse at the camera’s design and suggests a few new features.
The GoPro Hero 8 Black brought relatively minor upgrades like a foldable built-in mount and compatibility with some new ‘Mod’ accessories. But this time we might be in for a hardware overhaul, with the tagline of “more everything” hinting at other potential upgrades.
The first teaser also confirms that the GoPro Hero 9 Black will bring a higher resolution sensor, taking a step up from the 12MP resolution that its predecessors offered.
Previous leaks have suggested that it will sport an image sensor with a 20MP resolution, capable of shooting 5K/30p video for the first time. Other shooting modes such as 4K/60p, 1080p and 240fps slow-motion will apparently be retained.
The same source also suggested that the battery’s capacity will see a huge bump up to 1,720mAh, an almost 40% upgrade over the 1,220mAh pack in the current model.
It’s unclear how much of an impact this will have on the battery life as the monochrome front display is also said to be replaced by a bigger color display to better frame shots during vlogging or selfies. According to earlier leaks, other hardware changes will include a new replaceable lens cover, which the Hero 8 Black surprisingly omitted.
On the software front, rumors suggest that the GoPro Hero 9 Black will bring HyperSmooth 3.0 image stabilization for ‘gimbal-like’ footage without any shake, and TimeWarp 3.0 for even simpler creation of time-lapsed videos. We could also see improvements in the video bitrate, HDR mode and raw image capture, though it’s possible these upgrades will come with a higher price tag.
With these improvements, GoPro will be fighting back against the Insta360 One R in terms of shooting capabilities and flexibility. Interestingly, there has been no mention of a GoPro Max successor yet.
Source: techradar.com
