Insta360 Nano Review: Turn Your iPhone into a VR Camera

written by local expert Anna Faustino

Anna is a co-founder of Adventure in You and has been traveling the world for the last 9 years. She has spent time living in Thailand, Mexico, Indonesia, and Spain and is our local expert in these areas. Her expertise on travel, gear, and building businesses have been featured on Foundr, Business Insider, Yahoo Travel, and more.

Being active in both the travel and tech scene, it never ceases to amaze me on how technology is constantly changing the way people travel. When I first told my dad that I wanted to backpack across Europe, he started fondly recalling how he spent a good six months or so doing the same thing as a teenager. I randomly asked if he had any photos and he laughed deeply saying “people didn’t really take photos of their travels then because we didn’t have any cameras!” Nowadays, capturing moments throughout your trip, whether through photos or videos is a big part of traveling. My partner Tom and I travel to exotic locations with one aim. To share it with our readers and hopefully, one day, inspire them to one day venture out to see it for themselves. While words and photos are our usual tools of the trade, sometimes, I feel like there’s no way for me to fully describe the entire experience.

Enter the Insta360 Nano

Sure, I can describe how blue the sky was and how calm and serene the lake looked, but in reality, no matter how good of a writer you are, pictures are worth a thousand words. To our delight, we had the chance to review the Insta360 Nano, a nifty little camera which you attach to your iPhone. Suddenly, instead of spending hours trying to describe a place that we know our readers would enjoy, we could whack up a photo and allow them to see and “experience” it themselves by turning our phone into an instant VR camera.

Related: Best Travel Cameras insta 360 nano

Insta360 Nano Camera

The best part about this camera is the size. You can easily place it at the side of your camera case, or even in just a small little pouch which you can bring anywhere. For those who are big on their tech gear, here are some of the specs of the Insta360 Nano.

The Camera Specs

  • Lens: F2.0 | 210-degree f2.0 fisheye lenses
  • Resolution: 3024 x 1520
  • Storage Medium: TF card
  • Compatibility: iPhone 6 and 7 (including all the versions in between)
  • Size: 110mm(D) × 33mm(W) × 21mm(H)
  • microSD slot (meaning you can use this even when it’s not connected to your phone)

As mentioned, the size and portability is its best feature. Being full-time travelers, I already feel like we carry too much gear as it is so having a small attachment which we can easily use with our iPhone is great. You can charge the Insta 360 camera using a microUSB cable and the built-in 800m battery, giving you about an hour of shooting time. The camera doesn’t draw battery from your phone so making sure it is charged even through a handy power bank is a good tip to remember.  Apart from the Insta360 Nano, the company who makes it also has an android version called the 360 air.

Insta 360 Nano Discount Code

Use our readers 5% Off discount code AIYIN360 when checking out in Amazon.

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Insta360 Camera: Our Thoughts

When we first got it, we were unsure as to what to expect. While we have seen 360 videos and photos, the resolution always seemed awful and some of the photos were badly stitched up when using regular apps. The Insta 360 Nano was able to automatically take photos and videos pretty much as soon as you attach it. It’s one of those no-brainer cameras where you can literally just point and shoot. We were impressed with the smooth stitching and overall effect that the camera gives. From photos to videos, we loved the results. For us, its pretty perfect. Imagine, how cool would it be to be able to read about a place to be followed by a photo which you can move around to really give you a feel of how the place looks like in real life?

The entire camera has built in loads of cool effects like a fisheye lens, filters, and other fun stuff which you can use to make your photos or videos even more exciting. To get the camera working, you have to download the Insta 360 app and from then onwards, everything is pretty straight forward. Once you edit a photo, you can easily share it to any social media platform like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.  If you want a sneak peak, check out the facebook post below showcasing one of our favorite spots in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Insta 360 Nano Price

Compared to other 360 degree cameras, the Insta 360 Nano is a bargain, being almost half of the price of its popular competitor the Rico Theta. The fact that this camera is under $200 makes it such a steal. The company has partnered with various companies like Amazon and Lazada in Asia, making it super easy to buy this product and have it delivered straight to your doorstep.

Editor’s Reminder: Use our readers 5% Off discount code AIYIN360 when checking out in Amazon.

Click to Read Reviews & Check Price

Our Verdict

Overall, it’s a pretty cool device which you can use to goof around, instantly turning your phone into a VR camera capturing everything around you. The camera box also turns into a VR card box which you can use to view photos and videos. When browsing around the app’s home page, there is also an active community of 360 users which share their photos and videos giving you a glimpse of all the cool things you can do with this nifty camera. The only downside is in order to properly embed a 360 photo into WordPress blogs, most of it entails downloading/ installing a plugin or adding lines of code. If anyone out there knows of an easy way to do this, please do share!

Disclaimer: The 360 camera was sent to us to try out but as always, our opinion is solely ours. We will always be 100% honest with all our reviews.


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