GoPro Announces $399 Cube-Shaped Hero 4 Session, Its Tiniest Camera To Date

Polaroid looked to make headlines today with its teeny tiny Cube+ which brings Wi-Fi connectivity, microSD support, and image stabilization with bargain basement pricing of $150. GoPro sees your Polaroid Cube+ and raises you the Hero 4 Session.

GoPro’s Hero4 Session is also a cube-like action camera, albeit one with a significantly higher price tag (we’ll get to that a little bit later). GoPro bills the Hero 4 Session as its “smallest, lightest, most convenient” action camera yet, with the device coming in at 40 percent lighter and 50 percent smaller than the Hero 4 Black and Hero 4 Silver.

But don’t let the small size fool you; the Hero 4 Session is pretty well stacked with support for 1080p60, 720p100 and 1440p30 video in addition to 8MP still shots (single, burst and time lapse modes are supported for photos). Since this is a GoPro camera after all, it’s built to withstand abuse and can be submerged to a depth of 33 feet (without the need for a waterproof case). Also included is a mounting system that allows the camera to be used with the vast ecosystem of mounts, a microSD slot, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, an integrated (non-removable battery), a microUSB port, and dual microphones.

Despite its small stature, the Hero 4 Session also brings with it a tiny display, which is unfortunately a fraction of the size of the ones you’ll find on larger GoPro cameras, doles out some basic information about the camera’s status.

"With HERO4 Session, we challenged ourselves to produce the smallest, lightest, most convenient GoPro possible," said GoPro founder and CEO Nicholas Woodman. "HERO4 Session combines the best of our engineering and user-experience know-how to deliver our most convenient life-capture solution, yet." Woodman adds, "I'm so excited about the launch of HERO4 Session because now I can finally use mine in public!"

Now for the, perhaps, tough pill to swallow regarding this announcement. As we mentioned before, Polaroid’s Cube+ is priced at a relatively reasonable $150. The GoPro Hero 4 Session, however, is priced at $399. That puts it on equal footing with the GoPro 4 Silver with respects to pricing, despite the fact that it lacks a touch screen and 4K recording abilities. This could make the Hero 4 Session a tough sell, especially if you don’t need a camera quite this compact.

The Hero 4 Session goes on sale July 12th.