Editors' Note: GoPro changed its pricing structure on May 9, 2023. Buyers no longer receive a discount when they purchase the Hero11 Black with a GoPro subscription. The Hero11 Black now starts at $399.99 without a subscription. Going forward, the GoPro service costs $24.99 for the first year and $49.99 every year thereafter.

GoPro updates its flagship Hero Black action camera on an annual schedule, so we've come to expect game-changing models to be followed with a few years of iterative updates. This year's Hero11 Black is the third version to use the current body style (it debuted with the Hero9), but there are plenty of changes inside. Its sensor is nearly square so you can pull out vertical or horizontal frames from the same clips, and the camera now supports horizon leveling without the need for an add-on lens. Other features include 5.3K60 and 4K120 video, rugged, waterproof construction, and tight integration with GoPro's cloud service. The Hero11 Black is a bit more capable all around than last year's model, and is our new Editors' Choice for action cams.

A Reshaped Sensor for Horizon Lock

How do you improve upon the already fantastic GoPro Hero10 Black? After all, last year's camera worked out all of the operating kinks introduced with the Hero9, and offered blistering frame rates for action fans to get clear views of their adventures with the flexibility to play back at slow-motion speeds.

Well, GoPro's engineers decided to change the shape of the image sensor, an upgrade that's not obvious or easy to market, but has some practical benefits, including effective horizon lock. And while frame rates haven't moved forward, the Hero11 Black upgrades its color sampling to 10-bit, a huge benefit for creators who use the flat color profile for creative grading.

The form factor matches up with the Hero9 and Hero10 Black, which means the Hero11 Black works with the same accessories, and includes both a rear touch screen and front-facing color LCD (without touch support). The metal frame feels tough, and the camera can go 33 feet deep without an add-on case. Mounting clips are integrated into the chassis and fold in for storage.

At 2.0 by 2.8 by 1.3 inches the Hero11 is small enough to mount in interesting places and sports an ultra-wide lens, so you can put it on the front of your snowboard or surfboard, on top of your helmet, or facing toward you on the console of your motorbike. Vloggers will also find it easy to handhold (especially with the addition of a selfie stick), as the Hero11 weighs just 4.5 ounces.

It's a pretty standard design for an action camera—GoPro established the concept, after all. There are competitors to consider, including older GoPro models (the Hero9 Black continues to be a good camera and a strong budget option at around $300). The DJI Osmo Action 3 and Insta360 One RS don't stray too far from the standard design either, though you could opt for the quirky DJI Action 2 or screen-free GoPro Hero11 Mini if you want a camera that can mount in even tighter spots.

The Hero11's price varies based on how you buy it. The camera's MSRP is $499.99, and that's the price you'll pay if you buy the camera through standard retail outlets. GoPro also sells the Hero11 at a discount if you buy it with a year-long subscription to its cloud service, offering the bundle for $399.99. Some of the camera's features rely on the service and given the better pricing, it's worthwhile to go for the bundle. The GoPro service renews at $50 annually after the first year, so you've got time to decide whether or not to cancel depending on how useful you find it.

Dual Interfaces for Beginners and Experts

The Hero11 only has a couple of buttons: one on the side to swap capture modes or (with a long press) turn the camera on or off, and a record button on the top. The main interface is the rear touch display, where you'll use swipe and tap gestures to change settings and swap between playback, capture, and menus.

If you're out rock climbing or snowboarding, you may not have easy access to press buttons. The camera also supports voice commands; when enabled, you can say "GoPro, start recording" to roll a clip. The camera also beeps loudly to indicate that it's starting or stopping a clip, and a blinking red tally lamp shows that it's rolling.

GoPro puts a load of video features and frame rate choices into the Hero11. That's great news for video experts, but adventure seekers and content creators may find the slew of options daunting. To help flatten the learning curve, the Hero11 introduces a new easy-to-understand user interface, aptly called Easy mode.

The Easy interface lets you pick playback speeds, not frame rates, so you can swap between real-time capture or 2x, 4x, or 8x slow-motion without having to do any mental frame rate math. A second toggle swaps between the best quality video (5.3K) or an extended battery mode that drops down to 4K.

The Easy mode is a good idea, but the way it's implemented could be a bit smoother. When the Hero11 is set to Easy you lose access to some of its killer features, including 8:7 aspect recording and specialized Time Lapse modes for Star Trails, Light Painting, and Vehicle Lights.

Swapping to the Pro control mode opens up every option you can imagine for video, and smartly presents a few presets for video, time-lapse, and photo modes. You can fine-tune the presets or make your own. GoPro includes a good set of defaults for video (Standard, Full Frame, Activity, Cinematic, Ultra Slo-Mo). Easy mode is tempting, but it's worthwhile to spend a little time setting up your presets in Pro mode to take full advantage of what the Hero11 can do.

Hero11 Black Accessories and Power

GoPro offers a few useful accessories for the Hero series. The Hero11 works with the same Media Mod, Max Lens Mod, and Volta battery handle as the past two models, so you can continue to use them if you're upgrading.

The Hero11 ships with the Enduro battery by default. The Enduro promises better runtimes in cold weather, good news for fans of winter sports. I tried it at room temperature and managed nearly an hour of 5.3K60 record time on a fully charged battery, but did contend with some overheating. The Hero11 shut off after about 25 minutes due to heat.

Action cameras aren't ideal for long-form recording, but there are ways to get longer record times from the Hero11. It benefits from airflow, so you won't have to worry about heat too much if you're using the camera as you move about. For static shots, running the camera off external power (via USB-C) supports longer continuous record times. Using a lower resolution and frame rate will cut down on heat buildup.

Even so, an hour of video isn't great. To record for longer you could grab a spare battery—an extra Enduro is $24.99, or you can get two Enduros and a dual-battery charging dock for $59.99. If you don't want to deal with battery changes, the Volta Battery Grip ($129.99) adds about four hours of runtime.

A USB-C port supports on-the-go charging and works with add-on microphones and accessories, like the aforementioned Media Mod mounting cage. The camera doesn't include internal memory; it works with microSDXC cards.

The Hero11 includes a GPS, so location data is added to your media just like with a smartphone. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are included so you can connect to your phone or tablet. The GoPro Quik app is a free download for Android or iOS and its basic features, file transfer and video editing, work without any need for a subscription. 

Automatic Editing Improves GoPro Service

GoPro has been bundling its cloud service with cameras for a few years now. To date, the most compelling reason to get the bundle has been cost savings—you get a decent discount up front, enough so that you won't feel bad if you forget to cancel, and members can also buy accessories and mounts at lower-than-retail prices.

Automatic cloud upload was introduced along with the Hero10, but gets a bit better here. Plug the Hero11 in when you get home and the camera starts to charge, uploads its memory card to the cloud, and clears the card so you're set to start fresh the next time you want to use it. To top it off, GoPro creates an algorithmically-edited highlight video from the uploaded clips and pushes it to your phone once it's ready.

It's neat and should please social media addicts who want to share some clips from an excursion but don't want to sit around editing a highlight reel at the end of the day. Bear in mind the automatic edits aren't suitable for vlogs or scenes with voiceover or dialogue, original audio is dropped in favor of a music track. The auto editing does better when you can give it plenty of good shots to work with.

There's no cap for video storage with the GoPro service, so you won't have to worry about media management. The subscription has a few other perks—two camera replacements per year (with a $99 fee per replacement) and some extra editing templates in the Quik app among them.

Hero11 Black Video and Imaging

The Hero11 Black has an impressive array of imaging features. For video it records up to 5.3K60, 4K120, and 2.7K240. Slower frame rates are also available, down to 24fps, so you can swap between cinema-friendly frame rates or opt for high-fps capture for smoother motion, speed ramping, and slow-mo effects.

Three color profiles are available—Natural, Vivid, and Flat. The camera is set to Natural by default and it's the setting you'll want to use, especially if you're not a video pro. Vivid is an option for scenes that benefit from saturated colors, while Flat capture footage with less color saturation and contrast. The Flat video looks a bit dull by design; the profile offers more leeway to edit color, and is meant to be color corrected. The Hero11 supports 10-bit color, versus 8-bit for earlier models, for much more flexibility to tune color and saturation.

The 8:7 aspect sensor is of interest to creators who want to record one clip and pull out frames for YouTube (16:9) and TikTok (9:16). The big pixel count (each 5.3K frame is about 27MP, versus 8MP for 4K) is beneficial for this type of production workflow, so creators and vloggers should pay attention to the feature.

Recording at the standard 16:9 aspect is more useful for most of us and is included. The Hero11 supports a few different angles, starting at an ultra-wide Hyperview (12mm equivalent) and narrowing in step-by-step to a vlog-friendly linear view with a moderate wide angle (around 30mm) and straightened lines.

Hyperview is an interesting look. It uses the full 8:7 sensor and widest angle of the lens, and applies a stretch to fit the video into a 16:9 frame. Hyperview applies more stretch to the edges of the frame than to the center, and is a good fit for recording activities up close, while still getting a wide view of your surroundings.

Video benefits from GoPro's class-leading Hypersmooth digital stabilization system. Handheld footage is eerily steady, and the camera supports horizon lock in several of its recording modes, a feature that keeps the horizon level even if you turn the camera. Hypersmooth is about as good as it gets when it comes to stabilization—our handheld video was as smooth as you'd expect with a tripod or gimbal, and horizon lock was able to keep our video level when recording footage from a very rocky boat.

The Hero11 has a stills mode with support for 27MP JPG or Raw DNG photos. If you're looking to edit color or exposure, the 12-bit Raw format is the way to go. By default, the camera is set to its SuperPhoto mode, which automatically adjusts settings to suit a scene, but modes for standard, HDR, or Raw capture are available, and you can save presets for different photo modes just like you can for video. Of course, if you miss a photo op and find yourself recording video instead, the 5.3K recording format nets good-looking frame grabs.

The Time Lapse mode supports stabilized hyperlapse, a style of video that combines time-lapse with camera movement, and works well for time-lapses where the camera is set in one place too. There are pre-tuned modes to capture the headlights from moving cars, grab night sky photos with star trails, and capture light painting too.

A New Sensor for New Tricks

GoPro updates its Hero Black camera every year, which puts some pressure on its engineering teams to one-up performance and features at a steady clip. I'll admit, last year's Hero10 Black seemed like a hard camera to top: it ironed out some kinks from the Hero9 and rolled great-looking video, with a huge ecosystem of accessories behind it.

The Hero11 Black's upgrades are pretty substantial, however. The heart of the camera—its image sensor—is brand new. It adds support for 10-bit capture, and its 8:7 ratio is beneficial for those who need to pull 16:9 and 9:16 frames from the same clip. Those features are more for YouTubers and creators who want to stand out in the crowded social media landscape.

The squarer image sensor adds a Horizon Lock feature for video, so it stays straight even from shaky footing. Generally speaking, the digital stabilization is second to none, so vloggers can forgo a gimbal. The 8:7 aspect also makes the Hyperview mode possible, so you can get an extreme perspective without having to buy the Max Lens Mod add-on.

GoPro has worked to make the camera a little easier to use this go-round. I'm not sold on Easy mode being the best for everyone, but it's helpful if you're just looking to use the camera for different slow-motion effects. The real ease-of-use enhancements are the preset modes for star and auto trails and light painting—we'd like to see GoPro extend some of its useful presets to Easy mode.

Adventure seekers and creators will be well served by the Hero11 Black, and like last year's GoPro, this one earns our Editors' Choice recommendation. We do think you should buy it with the subscription to save some money upfront. The full $499.99 retail price is a bit much to stomach, and the $399.98 subscription bundle is a deal in comparison. It's easy enough to cancel the service if you don't find it useful. We'll also say that if 10-bit footage and horizon lock aren't must-have features, the Hero10 Black ($349.98 with subscription) and Hero9 Black ($299.98 with subscription) are still available.

Budget-minded action camera shoppers can also look at the DJI Osmo Action 3 for $329. It supports 4K120 like the Hero11, but doesn't do 5.3K. The Insta360 One RS 4K Edition is another $300 option; It's unique in that you can add a large sensor or 360-degree dual-lens module as an upgrade.