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00:00Hey guys, I'm Tom of Tech Chap, and I'm shooting this on the new GoPro Hero 10 Black,
00:05including the built-in mic so you can get an idea of the audio quality,
00:08and it's also a 5K60, one of the new resolution and framerate options.
00:12So, there's a ton of stuff I want to show you about this,
00:16except this video very nearly didn't happen. It almost went disastrously wrong.
00:21So this is the Hero 10 Black, and as part of this review package,
00:26GoPro also sent this remote control speedboat,
00:29which is equal parts awesome and also terrifying.
00:33In fact, taking a, well, few liberties with central London bylaws,
00:37I snuck down to the edge of the Thames to give this thing a proper test,
00:41and holy moly does this thing go!
00:51So this is being shot at 4K60, with HyperSmooth 4.0 boost enabled,
00:56and also with the linear field of view.
00:58And considering how bumpy the river and the boat is,
01:01it's doing a remarkable job of staying smooth.
01:10And also you can see, bar the odd bit of dirt or sand,
01:13there are very few water droplets on the lens, which is actually one of the upgrades.
01:22So far, so good then.
01:23Well, except for that, but at least I got it back.
01:27Now this time, still at 4K60, but with horizon levelling turned on,
01:34which, well, as it says on the tin, locks the horizon,
01:37now up to a 45 degree angle, up from 27 degrees on last year's Hero 9.
01:42Gunning it towards the city, it's all buttery smooth,
01:46even if that hydrophobic lens has picked up some of that beautiful brown Thames water.
01:51But then things took a turn.
01:54Literally.
01:56In the middle of the Thames, it capsizes, and my heart sinks.
02:02The GoPro and the boat, all of my footage.
02:06I wasn't quite sure how I was going to tell GoPro I wouldn't be making a video.
02:11It's still on as well.
02:22Oh my god.
02:26After a good half hour or so, and the wake of a few boats going past,
02:29it drifts back to shore, and my completely on purpose 30 minute underwater test was successful.
02:41So
03:04what's new with the Hero 10 Black, aside from this snazzy new blue coloured font?
03:09Well, the star of the show is the brand new GP2 chip,
03:13and it's the first new processor we've had in a GoPro since the 6 back in 2017,
03:18and it's twice as fast.
03:20Side by side, you can really see just how much snappier the interface is.
03:24It really does feel like you're using your phone now rather than a laggy action cam.
03:29And even the front screen is smoother now thanks to a higher frame rate.
03:33But most importantly, GP2 also doubles the frame rates we can shoot in.
03:37So we now have 4K at 120, 5.3K at 60, and 2.7K at 240 FPS.
03:45We also now get HyperSmooth 4.0, which isn't significantly different to 3.0 last year,
03:51except it works at the higher resolutions and frame rates.
03:54There's also that improved horizon levelling.
03:56The cameras had a bump up to 23 megapixels from 20,
04:00and you can now pull out up to 19.6 megapixel stills from your 5K video,
04:05which again is up from 15.8 last year.
04:08So across the board, we're looking at more detailed photos and screenshots
04:12and higher frame rate video.
04:13Now in terms of actual picture quality,
04:16I don't think an awful lot has changed when you're in good light.
04:19But as you guys know, the one thing that GoPro struggle with is low light performance.
04:23So with the new chip, we have new advanced tonal mapping and also 3D noise reduction.
04:29So hopefully a little bit less noisy as you're watching this and the lighting changes,
04:34but probably not a night and day difference in terms of actual video quality.
04:38On the outside, there's now a policy of no licking,
04:41because as I mentioned earlier, the Hero 10 has this new lens cover with hydrophobic glass.
04:46It is still removable if it breaks,
04:49but GoPro says not only is this even more scratch resistant than before,
04:53but the water shedding glass helps stop droplets from obscuring the lens,
04:56something GoPro users used to lick the lens to help prevent before they took it in the sea.
05:01It does seem to work most of the time, but sand and dirt can still get in the way.
05:06But visually, you'd be hard pressed to tell this apart from the Hero 9,
05:10because aside from, well, the number and that blue font,
05:13oh, and the fact that it's 3% lighter, you can't really tell.
05:16We get the same front and back screens,
05:18the same slightly finicky pull down release for the battery and micro SD card slot,
05:22although batteries are interchangeable, so you can use your old ones with this.
05:26And then there's these pull down thingamajigs for mounting attachments.
05:29And it does support all the mods for the Hero 9, including the max lens.
05:34But I do just want to show you this horizon leveling again,
05:37where you can tilt the roll of the camera,
05:39because HyperSmooth does a great job at keeping everything, well, smooth,
05:42but eliminating the roll with horizon leveling really makes a difference.
05:46So the Hero 10 gets the usual three modes, photo, video, and time warp.
05:51And on screen, you can tap to go back to real time whenever you like,
05:54and then resume the time warps, so you can get some really cool effects.
06:00So the UI and the menus are pretty much the same as before,
06:07although I do appreciate that they've rejigged the default camera settings a little bit,
06:11so you don't really need to mess around with Pro Tune anymore in my experience.
06:15The only tweak I'd suggest is changing the bitrate from medium to high.
06:19We still get all the smart capture modes like hindsight,
06:22which captures 30 seconds of video before you hit record,
06:25live burst for taking a bunch of photos one and a half seconds before and after you shot,
06:30and also now scheduled capture lets you set a time and record up to 24 hours in advance,
06:35and then helpfully duration capture lets you select for how long you want it to record.
06:40But you will want to download the GoPro Quick app.
06:42It'll suggest you subscribe to GoPro for automatic uploads and 1080p live streaming,
06:47but mostly I just use it as a remote viewfinder for the camera,
06:50which is free and much easier to frame a shot on this rather than the back of the GoPro.
06:55But in the Quick app you can also update the software and adjust all the settings,
06:59including what you want the front screen to show.
07:02Another new feature of the Hero 10 is the ability to auto-upload your day's footage to the cloud
07:07as soon as you plug it into charge via the USB-C port.
07:11You can also wirelessly transfer it via the app or plug it into your phone directly,
07:15and actually these are 30 and 50% faster respectively on the Hero 10,
07:19or of course you have the good old-fashioned way of just popping it on the microSD
07:23and plugging it into your PC, probably via an adapter.
07:27Okay so future Tom jumping in here because I had originally
07:32scripted and made some notes about battery life and also
07:35some conclusions about the Hero 10 which I'm shooting this on now,
07:38but I've come across a bit of a problem because I wanted to test the battery life of the Hero 10
07:43because GoPro say it's comparable to the Hero 9 unless you're using one of the more high
07:47performance modes like 5k60 or 4k120, in which case it's a little bit less,
07:52but actually my tests over a 20-minute 4k60 recording,
07:57the Hero 9 actually had 73% of its battery remaining versus 61% on the Hero 10,
08:04so that was a noticeable downgrade in battery even in the same camera mode.
08:09But actually I've come across a bigger problem, overheating, because I cannot get this Hero 10
08:15to run longer than about 23 minutes before it overheats and just shuts down.
08:21I've tried it at 4k60, at 5k30, on three different batteries.
08:26So I reached out to my friend Tommy from Gadgets Boy who is also testing the Hero 10 and I got him
08:31to
08:50So there's a couple of things here. Firstly, this is a pre-release model, or at least it's a
08:54non-final software. I'll put the software number below. So that is something that maybe can be
08:59fixed with an update, but I also shared my findings with GoPro to see if they had any thoughts and to
09:04be honest they didn't really have a good answer. They told me that they don't recommend recording
09:09on the highest settings in a static environment, as that's where overheating is likely to happen,
09:14but even at 2.7k60, which is some way from being the highest settings, after just over 20 minutes
09:21it shuts down. Surely there is something wrong here and maybe it's worth holding off buying.
09:27But then again it could be an easy software fix or just an issue with these pre-release models,
09:31in which case this whole section of the review you can just ignore and you can carry on buying
09:36your Hero 10. So bear that in mind, but let's now go back to my original video and my wrap-up.
09:42So how much? Well the 10 Black will cost you $500 or $400 if you have the GoPro subscription, but
09:49considering that costs £50, you may as well get that first and then buy the discounted
09:55Hero 10 Black. Of course you can still buy the 9 and the 8 for lower prices,
09:59I think the 9 is definitely still worth considering if you're not that bothered
10:03about the higher frame rates, the improved horizon leveling and also the faster UI.
10:08If you can live without that, the Hero 9 is probably a better value option, but what do
10:11you reckon? Would you be tempted to buy one of these? And also what do you think is still missing
10:15that you'd like to see in the 11? Let me know in the comments below.
10:19Cheers for watching guys, I'll see you next time right here on the Tech Channel.