
DJI
Osmo Action 5 Pro
Great low-light, mic integration; watch out for lens flare.

Running these analyses costs money. Buy through my links to help keep lights on! I may get a small commission.
I don't know about gimbal mode for X4 Air. I think it depends on what you want to do with the camera. I have an Ace Pro and an X4 and I use my X4 a lot more in general because of the convenience of having a 360 pespective that allow reframing after the fact. I also have the X2 awhich was 150g and I notice the weight of the X4 (200g) at the end of a 100cm pole (a long lever) while snowboarding as I like to keep the stick horizontal and at waist height. The X5 is 200g as well so it will be a bit heavier than the 165g X4 Air. Last I checked the X4 Air is like $150 cheaper for a slight reducing in low-light image quality (the sensors are smaller) and like 15 minutes less battery life. So I would pick the X4 Air for action sports usage (handheld out in sunny weather) as well as to save some money. But if money is not an issue and you want the absolute best image quality available on a Insta360 right now and you are mostly not long-lever handholding (e.g. head, chest or object mounted) than I would got with X5.
I have a X2/X4 and a Ace Pro. X5 is a 360 camera. So when you crop it down from 8K 360 to a 16:9 viewport with say a 90 degree field of view... you are at something around 2.7K resolution (note you can shoot single lens in 4K, but it is an ultra, ultra wide field of view... so it's not going to be as good as a normal 4K as well). Personally, if I have to have only one camera with me, I always take my X4... it is just much more versatile as I think the convenient of framing and tracking almost always outweigh the loss in quality. Some times I have both an a magnetic-quick mount stick and just swap between the two depending on whether I need the reframing ability of the 360 camera or not.
I can definitely tell my X4 (200g) is noticeably heavier at the end of a long pole compared to my old X2 (150 g). X4 Air is 165g and the X5 is also 200g like the X4. The X4 Air has bigger sensor than X4 and so has better video quality and so sits as cheaper option to the X5 as it is $400 vs $550 for the X5 (the regular X4 is $425). I found this Youtube comparison of video quality of the three cameras here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsYJtg-O4f4. X4 Air also has field replaceable lenses compared to the X4 and earlier cameras and addition to Me Mode (which auto-creates a 16:9 MP4 centered down the selfie stick) it has InstaFrame (16:9 video center on your face) as well as 8K HDR (regular X4 only has HDR for 5.7k).
Yes... I really noticed the weight increase from the X2 (150g) to the X4 (200g, X5 is also 200g) when snowboarding with it on the end of a extended pole when riding like this [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ReTFna\_vKLs](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ReTFna_vKLs)). For straight airs isn't fine, but I kind of flail/flap my arms a bit on spins and the weight of the camera at the end of a pole throws me off a bit when I land. Going to the X4 Air (165g) would help.
Camera sensor sizes use a very archaic and non-intuitive naming scheme... when they are listed as fractions... so the sensor size is bigger with the smaller denominator. The X4 has a Type-1/2" sensor (\~30.7 mm\^2) while the X4 Air has a Type-1/1.8" sensor which is roughly 38mm\^2. The X5 has a Type-1/1.28" that is roughly 71mm\^2 Here's a video I found on YT that shows side by side video comparisons - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsYJtg-O4f4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsYJtg-O4f4) (I have no affiliation with the video, it was just the first video I found today that did good side by side videos). Also the weight savings is non-trivial. I really noticed the weight increase from my X2 (150g) to my X4 (200g). The X5 is also 200g and the X4 Air is 165g.
My only issue with GoPro is that I cannot shoot at 4K60FPS while mountain biking because it will almost always overheat. I do not have any over heating issues with my Insta Ace Pro 2 and that's mainly the reason I only use the Ace Pro 2 these days and sometimes the X2.
Insta 360 x4 and up. No competition. When I switched from go pro to insta 360 x2 it was game changing. And I was big time into go pros
I've been using the insta360 x2 and recently the x5 and I think that 360 is the best thing that has happend to sport cams. Quality is maybe a tiny bit worse compared to standard 4k+ modern cam, but the hasle of not having to adjust the camera angle and recording everything around makes so much up for it. The angle can be adjusted and the end result is up to the user, i personaly hate it when people exaggerate(in pov) with the wide angle to make it look faster etc but you still have so much more options that it is a no brainer
There are some comparisons between the X4 Air and the X5. The X5 has better picture quality, but I went with the X4 Air and have had no thoughts about the quality. Recommend the X4 Air. I had an X2, but the mount broke and I lost the camera. The X2's quality was also really good, but the small circle screen was awful. No complaints about the X4 Air
Got 3 of them (X2, X4 and X5) I use the rear “magic stick mount” and a handlebar mount. In probably about 25000kms, it has only come off once and that was the handlebar mount, I assume it wasn’t done up. What you should also do is have a backup connection, so a cable tie etc, so even if it comes off, it gets stuck.

DJI
Osmo Action 5 Pro
Great low-light, mic integration; watch out for lens flare.

DJI
Osmo Action 4
Reliable, stable, good battery; struggles in low light.

Insta360
Ace Pro 2
Community favorite for low-light, 8K; lacks 10-bit color.

Insta360
Insta360 X5
Replaceable lenses, 360 reframing; poor distant image quality.

DJI
Osmo Action 6
Strong low-light, good battery; aggressive HDR, soft night photos.

Ranked #1
DJI - Osmo Action 5 Pro

Ranked #1
DJI - Osmo Action 5 Pro

Ranked #1
DJI - Osmo Action 4

Ranked #1
DJI - Osmo Action 5 Pro

Ranked #1
DJI - Osmo Action 4

Ranked #1
DJI - Osmo Action 5 Pro